Organic Residue Analysis and the First Uses of Pottery in the Ancient Middle East - BAR International Series

This book explores the role of organic residue analysis in identifying economic activities and subsistence practices associated with the first uses of pottery in the Middle East, and presents the results of the author's analyses of 280 potsherds recovered from 22 Neolithic and early Chalcolithic settlements dating between 7300 and 4300 cal BC. 'Conventional' techniques have limited utility in the recovery of diagnostic organic compounds from these contexts, and increased yields can be achieved through the use of a microwave-assisted liquid chromatography protocol. In light of these and other considerations, the author evaluates the diagnostic potential and limitations of different methodological approaches in the recovery and characterization of organic residues, and proposes a series of measures that will allow more confident categorization of the substances early pottery vessels from the Middle East may have once contained.