No Bones About It: Using Lipid Analysis of Burned Rock and Groundstone Residues to Examine Late Archaic Subsistence Practices in South Texas

Abstract

The·stratified, multicomponent Lino site spans a 1400-year interval during the Late Archaic period in s-outh Texas. The site yielded roughly 18,000 cultural items, including some 12,000 scattered and clustered burned rocks. Vertebrate faunal remains were absent; evidence for a broad-based subsistence pattern was obtained from fatty acid analysis of residues extracted from 43 burned rocks and five ground stones. The compositions of the archaeological residues were compared with experimental burned rock residues produced by cooking plants now found in south Texas. The archaeological organic residues indicate that a variety of plants, large herbivores, and possibly fish were processed at the Lino site. The residues do not appear to vary significantly over time at the Lino site even though the local region experienced a change from dry to more moist conditions.