MALDI‐FT‐ICR‐MS for archaeological lipid residue analysis

Abstract

Organic residue analysis has become one of the major and rapidly developing fields in archaeological sciences. The analyses of lipid residues have produced several fruitful studies allowing a better understanding of past life-ways and economy, pottery function and agricultural practices. One potentially fruitful, yet under-utilized analytical method for the identification of archaeological lipid residues is MALDI-FT-ICR-MS. In this Perspective Special Feature, Ester Oras and colleagues demonstrate the suitability of MALDIFT- ICR-MS for archaeological organic residue analysis with four different archaeological samples and highlight its capability of identifying different intact, degraded and oxidized triacylglycerols from food residues. The article describes the analysis of samples of both food-crust and ceramic powder from vessels discovered from the 12th–13th century AD cemetery at Kukruse, Estonia. Dr. Oras is a Research fellow of, Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Tartu (Tartu, Estonia). Her research interests are organic residue analysis of prehistoric and early medieval material with her main focus on food residues, but she has also worked on adhesives, embalming resins, and isotope based migration studies.