Lipid Residue Analysis of Archaeological Pottery: An Introductory Laboratory Experiment in Archaeological Chemistry

Abstract

In this research-based experiment, students are introduced to the interdisciplinary field of archaeological chemistry by extracting and analyzing lipid residues absorbed in pottery. Reproduction archaeological pottery sherds are prepared by soaking ceramic fragments in individual or combinations of vegetable oils. Students crush and extract the absorbed residues, transesterify the recovered lipids to fatty acid methyl esters, and analyze the product by GC or GC/MS. Recovered residues are characterized by analysis of the major fatty acid peaks, as identified using reference standards or mass spectral databases. An archaeological context that links the sherds to the Minoan civilization is provided to students and must be considered to correctly identify the absorbed residue(s). The laboratory has been used in a topical archaeological instrumentation course that has attracted second to fourth year students majoring in chemistry, biochemistry, and anthropology, and museum studies minors. Pedagogically, the la...