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Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery

Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery. Nadia Graham 1 , Robert Berstan 1 , Kathleen Ryan 2 , Karega-Munene 3 , Diane Gifford-Gonzalez 4 , Darla Dale 5 & Richard Evershed 1. 1 Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of

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Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery

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  1. Lipid Residues in Ancient African Pottery Nadia Graham1, Robert Berstan1, Kathleen Ryan2, Karega-Munene3, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez4, Darla Dale5 & Richard Evershed1 1Organic Geochemistry Unit, Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, U.K 2Museum Applied Center for Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A 3School of Arts and Sciences, United States International University, Thika Road Kasarani, Nairobi, Kenya, P.O. Box 14634 00800 4Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Cruz, 351 Social Sciences 1, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, U.S.A 5 Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, College of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

  2. Lipids in Archaeological Pottery • Present in all plants and animals • Lipids from foods are absorbed into the ceramic matrix during cooking • They remain trapped in the clay over archaeological time • Degrade into component compounds

  3. African Archaeology • Split into geographical areas • Cultures and chronologies: reconstructed based mainly on pottery ware and linguistics • Knowledge of daily life based on artifacts recovered and anthropological observations of modern equivalents • Vast areas still unexplored archaeologically • Lipid analysis yet to be applied to more than a handful of sites Frontispiece (Phillipson, 2005)

  4. Sites

  5. Gogo Falls Laikipia Nature Conservancy • West bank of the Kuja river • Pottery from c. 5000 – 1770 years before present • Laikipia Plateau • E. of Lake Victoria • Occupation between 3000 BP to Iron Age • Pottery from 3000 BP – 1300 BP

  6. Siror Adrar Bous • Massif (large block of bedrock) • Edge of Tenerian desert (Niger) • Pottery from 9500 BP and 3900 BP • In western Kenya, 20 km from Lake Victoria • Dates of occupation at this site: c. 7700 bp – 2800 bp Kiffian Tenerian

  7. Faunal Remains • Siror: Eight different kinds of fish • Laikipia: domestic cattle, sheep and goat • Adrar Bous: domestic cattle (Tenerian) and aquatic animals (Kiffian)

  8. Questions • Given the abundance and diversity of wild faunal remains at these sites, what uses were the domesticates being put to? • Possible answers include: • Protein source • Dairy products • Blood • Were fish or terrestrial mammals the primary food source at Siror and Gogo Falls?

  9. Methods

  10. Lipids Present • East Africa: • Gogo Falls: 22/48 sherds (46%) • Laikipia: 3/13 sherds (23%) • Siror: 2/8 sherds (25%) • West Africa • Adrar Bous: 8/15 sherds (53%) • Total: 35/84 (42%) lipid-bearing

  11. Results – Gogo Falls

  12. Results - Laikipia

  13. Results - Siror

  14. Results – Adrar Bous

  15. Gogo Falls Sherd #08

  16. Results: GC-C-IRMS

  17. Conclusions • 42% of sherds were lipid-bearing • Majority of lipids are animal fats, with some plant waxes • Source of lipids in one sherd (so far) may be aquatic fish • Source of C16:0 and C18:0 fatty acids may be non-ruminants (i.e. suids) with a high C4 diet

  18. Future Work • More sherds from various sites to be cleaned and extracted • GC-C-IRMS of fatty acids previously recovered • HTGC & GC-C-IRMS of reference fats • Base extraction of bound lipids • GC-MS of unknown compounds

  19. Acknowledgements • Richard Evershed • Robert Berstan • Kathleen Ryan, Karega-Munene, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Darla Dale • Everyone in the Bristol OGU • This audience Questions?

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