Charting a Future Course for Organic Residue Analysis in Archaeology

Abstract

Working hypotheses, which draw upon as many relevant disciplines as possible to derive the maximum information from a very limited database, are key to the highly interdisciplinary field of organic residue analysis in archaeology, a branch of biomolecular archaeology. Archaeology and chemistry are most important for effectively developing and testing such hypotheses, but botany, zoology, geology, etc. also need to be taken into account. Archaeologically, the goal is to obtain as many relevant samples as possible from the best preserved and dated contexts, which have been subjected to the least degradation and disturbance by later natural processes and human handling, including washing and conservation treatment. Chemically, molecular biomarkers of natural products need to be defined and identified by the best and most appropriate techniques, together with bioinformatics searches and assessment of degradation. With ever-improving techniques and new data, previously analyzed samples need to be retested and hypotheses possibly reformulated. Consideration of three case studies illustrates this holistic approach to inductive hypothesis generation and deductive testing: (1) new chemical findings that attest to grape wine in amphoras on board the 14th c. B.C. Uluburun ship, the earliest recorded Mediterranean wreck; (2) recently published research on beeswax/mead in Chalcolithic Israel and Neolithic China and Poland; and (3) recent articles on milk products from 2nd millennium B.C. Central Asia and Neolithic Poland. Potential pitfalls leading to weak hypotheses and mistaken conclusions are described, and a more productive approach is proposed.