Pottery lipid residues

The potential for the preservation of lipids is relatively high since by definition they are hydrophobic and not susceptible to hydrolysis by water, unlike most amino acids and DNA. A wide range of fatty acids, sterols, acylglycerols, and wax esters have been identified in visible surface debris on pottery fragments or as residues absorbed into the permeable ceramic matrix. Isolation of lipids from these matrices is achieved by solvent extraction of powdered samples and analysis is often by the powerful and sensitive technique of combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS see Section 8.4). This approach has been successfully used for the identification of ancient lipid residues, contributing to the study of artifact... 

Bonfield, K. M. (1997). The Analysis and Interpretation of Lipid Residues Associated with Prehistoric Pottery pitfalls and potential. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bradford, UK. 

S. N. Dudd, R. P. Evershed and A. M. Gibson, Evidence for varying patterns of exploitation of animal products in different prehistoric pottery traditions based on lipids preserved in surface and absorbed residues, Journal of Archaeological Science, 26, 1473 1482 (1999). 

Pottery residues GC/MS, GC-IR-MS, Pyr-GC-MS Identification of lipid origin, especially plant and animal fats... 

Lipids from marine products have been identified in archaeological residues in pottery on the basis of the presence of co-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids with 16,18, and 20 carbon atoms, together with isoprenoid fatty acids (4,8,12-trimethyltetradecanoic acid and phytanic acid). These products are presumed to have been formed during the heating of tri-unsaturated fatty acids (Cl6 3, Ci8 3, und 20 3), futty acyl components of marine lipids [36,37]. 

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