Rice herbicide drift poses a significant challenge in California, where rice fields are near almond, pistachio, and walnut orchards. This research was conducted as part of a stewardship program for a newly registered rice herbicide and specifically aimed to compare the onset of foliar symptoms resulting from simulated florpyrauxifen-benzyl drift with residues in almond, pistachio, and walnut leaves at several time points after exposure. Treatments were applied to one side of the canopy of 1- and 2-yr-old trees at 1/100X and 1/33X of the florpyrauxifen-benzyl rice field use rate of 29.4 g ai ha–1 in 2020 and 2021. Symptoms were observed 3 d after treatment (DAT) for pistachio and 7 DAT for almond and walnut, with peak severity at approximately 14 DAT. While almond and walnut symptoms gradually dissipated throughout the growing season, pistachio still had symptoms at leaf out in the following spring. Leaf samples were randomly collected from each tree for residue analysis at 7, 14, and 28 DAT. At 7 DAT with the 1/33X rate, almond, pistachio, and walnut leaves had florpyrauxifen-benzyl at 6.06, 5.95, and 13.12 ng g–1 fresh weight (FW) leaf, respectively. By 28 DAT, all samples from all crops treated with the 1/33X drift rate had florpyrauxifen-benzyl at less than 0.25 ng g–1 FW leaf. At the 1/100X rate, pistachio, almond, and walnut residues were 1.78, 2.31, and 3.58 ng g–1 FW leaf at 7 DAT, respectively. At 28 DAT with the 1/100X rate, pistachio and almond samples had florpyrauxifen-benzyl at 0.1 and 0.04 ng g–1 FW leaf, respectively, but walnut leaves did not have detectable residues. Together, these data suggest that residue analysis from leaf samples collected after severe symptoms may substantially underestimate actual exposure due to the relatively rapid dissipation of florpyrauxifen-benzyl in nut tree foliage.

Although first identified 120 years ago, knowledge of the Toalean technoculture of Middle Holocene Sulawesi, Indonesia, remains limited. Previous research has emphasised the exploitation of largely terrestrial resources by hunter-gatherers on the island. The recent recovery of two modified tiger shark teeth from the Maros-Pangkep karsts of South Sulawesi, however, offers new insights. The authors combine use-wear and residue analyses with ethnographic and experimental data to indicate the use of these artefacts as hafted blades within conflict and ritual contexts, revealing hitherto undocumented technological and social practices among Toalean hunter-gatherers. The results suggest these artefacts constitute some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the use of shark teeth in composite weapons.

For 15 years, the University of Idaho has conducted chemical testing of excavated materials from historical sites throughout North America. The most common artifacts tested are sealed containers. Some come from current excavations, but most are from repository shelves. The immediate purpose of the archaeochemistry work is twofold: to identify the contents of the containers for researchers and to provide training for students in analytical chemistry. After testing more than 500 items, project personnel have recognized some unexpected outcomes that have implications for institutions housing the artifacts. Specifically, tested materials identified the small, yet consistent, presence of certain artifacts that can have health implications for personnel working with the items. The article concludes with general guidance on identifying and assessing those risks.

Modified teeth and jaws have long been recognized as important ceremonial objects during the Middle Woodland period of eastern North America. Direct evidence for the manufacture of the objects is exceedingly rare because they are typically recovered from mortuary contexts or ceremonial caches. Here, we present multiple lines of evidence pointing to the manufacture of modified teeth and jaws at the Moorehead Circle post enclosure within the Fort Ancient Earthworks. The convergence of protein residue, lithic use-wear, and faunal data indicate that bear and likely canid bones were modified by artisans working within the Moorehead Circle. These findings add an important new layer of understanding to our knowledge of these objects, human–animal relations, and craft production in the Middle Woodland.

Smoking pipes discovered in archaeological contexts demonstrate that Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America have practiced smoking for over 4,500 years. Archaeometry and ancient residue metabolomics provide evidence for the association of particular plants with these artifacts. In this article, we synthesize recent research on ancient smoking and present current knowledge on the spatiotemporal distribution of smoking in the past. The presence of stone smoking pipes in the archaeological record is paired with our understanding of past plant use based on chemical residue analyses to create a picture of precontact smoking practices. Archaeological pipe data demonstrate that smoking was a widely distributed practice in the inland Northwest over the past several thousand years, but not on the coast. Distributional data—including positive and negative evidence from chemical residue studies—show that tobacco was an important smoke plant in the region as early as around 1,410 years ago and as far north as the mid-Columbia region. Ancient residue metabolomics contributes to a richer understanding of past use of specific plants through the identification of tobacco species and other indigenous plants, including Rhus glabra, Cornus sericia, and Salvia sp., as contributing to the chemical residues in ancient pipes.

We investigated foodways at Real Alto, an early Formative (4400–1800 BC) Valdivia site in coastal Ecuador, using starch and phytoliths recovered from 50 stone tools from three residential and two ceremonial structures, as well as 46 human dental calculus samples, to explore how food reflects the social relationships and economy of the community. Maize was important in daily meals and ceremonial foods by the Middle Valdivia (2800–2400 BC), but it was only one component of an agricultural system that included yuca, arrowroot, llerén, canna, yam, jackbean, squash, gourd, chili, and cotton. Ceremonial and everyday foods at Real Alto did not differ: actions surrounding food were both domestic and ceremonial, depending on context. Households had equal access to annual crops and to root-tubers with longer growing seasons. Gelatinized starch was commonly recovered on tools, indicating the processing of cooked foods. Dental calculus residues confirmed common consumption of cooked foods, fruits, and root-tubers. Cultivating crops with different water and growing season requirements necessitated diverse practices, potentially including selection of short-season varieties, hand watering, and growing crops over multiple rainy seasons. The latter two practices required increased labor inputs: access to labor was likely a key element supporting the nascent social hierarchy that emerged by the Middle Valdivia.

Lipid residue analysis has recently been applied to investigate the adoption of pottery by Early Woodland hunter-gatherers in north-eastern North America. Results, however, have proven contradictory, especially regarding the extent to which early ceramics were used for processing aquatic resources. Here, the authors argue that this inconsistency is due to the use of different analytical procedures and criteria for identifying aquatic organisms, rather than any actual variations in pottery use. By applying robust analytical criteria and methods to Early Woodland pottery from the Great Lakes region, the authors present evidence supporting their hypothesis that such pottery was indeed used for processing aquatic resources.

The commercial release of crops with engineered resistance to 2,4-D and dicamba will alter the spatial and temporal use of these herbicides. This, in turn, has elicited concerns about off-target injury to sensitive crops. In 2014 and 2015, studies were conducted in Tifton, GA, to describe how herbicide (2,4-D and dicamba), herbicide rate (1/75 and 1/250 field use), and application timing (20, 40, and 60 DAP) influence watermelon injury, vine development, yield, and the accumulation of herbicide residues in marketable fruit. In general, greater visual injury and reductions in vine growth, relative to the non-treated check, were observed when herbicide applications were made before watermelon plants had begun to flower. Although the main effects of herbicide and rate were less influential than the timing of applications with respect to plant development, the 1/75 rates were more injurious than the 1/250 rates; dicamba was more injurious than 2,4-D. In 2014, the 1/75 and 1/250 rates of each herbicide reduced marketable fruit numbers 13 to 20%, but only for the 20 DAP application. The 1/75 rate of each herbicide when applied at either 20 or 40 DAP reduced the number of fruit harvested per plot in 2015. Dicamba residues were detected in marketable fruit when the 1/75 rate in 2014 and 2015 and the 1/250 rate in 2015 was applied to plants at 40 or 60 DAP. Residues of 2,4-D were detected in 2015 when the 1/75 and 1/250 rates were applied at 60 DAP. Across both years, the maximum level of residue detected was 0.030 ppm. While early season injury may reduce watermelon yields, herbicide residue detection is more likely in marketable fruit when an off-target contact incident occurs closer to harvest.

Immunochemical techniques offer many advantages over chromatographic methods used for pesticide trace analysis of substrates such as soil, water, plants, urine, and blood. These advantages include speed of processing samples, high specificity for detecting a pesticide, reduced amount of preparation and cleanup of the sample before analysis, and a dramatic increase in the number of samples that can be analyzed. Immunoassays are based on the principle that antibodies to pesticides can be prepared, in animals, that can recognize and attach with exquisite specificity to certain chemical configurations displayed on the surface of a molecule. Small molecules such as herbicides usually are not immunogenic but can be made so by chemically bonding them to a large immunogenic protein such as bovine serum albumin before injection into an animal. Development of herbicide-specific antibodies and their use in direct and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (EIA or ELISA) as well as radioimmunoassays (RIA) are discussed. The principles behind monoclonal antibody production are outlined, and immunoassays using polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are compared. Specific reference is made to the development and use of indirect ELISA and RIA procedures for trace analysis of 2,4-D and picloram.

Why was pottery developed and adopted? Food residues on ceramic material from three sites in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America suggest that there is no single answer, and contradict previous indications that pottery was created for the ritual processing of fish oil. Samples from two sites showed evidence of both plant and animal remains, but no fish oils were detected, even for the site believed to be a fishing camp. Nut oils dominated for the third site, being present on both fire-cracked rocks and pottery, and were suggestive of an acorn-rendering process. All of the vessels were ideally suited to slow simmering, but it seems that their applications were diverse.

Three wine jars in Tutankhamun's fabulously preserved burial chamber had been opened and placed east, west and south of the sarcophagus. By means of inscriptions, endorsed by residue analysis, the author distinguishes the contents as red wine, white wine and a high quality fortified wine, and goes on to argue for specific symbolic meanings for these choices in the context of religious change after Akhenaten.

Ceramics were subjected to organic residue analysis from two collections: a series of middle Copper Age (Bodrogkeresztúr) vessels hitherto known as ‘milk jugs’, curated in the Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, Budapest, and a collection of early Baden (Boleráz) vessels from the recently discovered settlement of Gyo”r-Szabadrét-domb, in western Hungary. The aim of the analyses was to establish whether or not these vessels, often associated with milk based on typological criteria, were actually used to process, store or serve dairy products. The results of the analyses revealed that no dairy products could be securely identified in the so-called ‘milk jugs’. Nevertheless dairy products were identified in other vessel types.