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Direct detection of maize in pottery residues via compound specific stable carbon isotope analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Eleanora A. Reber ,
Stephanie N. Dudd ,
Nikolaas J. van der Merwe  and
Richard P. Evershed
Eleanora A. Reber
Affiliation:
Anthropology Program, UNC Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC 28403, (Email: rebere@uncwil.edu)
Stephanie N. Dudd
Affiliation:
Waters Corporation, Atlas Park, Simonsway, Manchester, M22 5PP, United Kingdom
Nikolaas J. van der Merwe
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, University of Cape Town, Private Bag Rondebosch 7700, South Africa Departments of Anthropology and Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Richard P. Evershed
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, Biochemistry Research Center, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol BS8 1TS United Kingdom (Email: r.p.evershed@bristol.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize – probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as coincident with the Mississippian fluorescence.

Keywords

North Americalipidextractionmaize
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 301 , September 2004 , pp. 682 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

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