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Web address:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/
030930055244.htm |
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On The Antiquity Of Pots: New Method Developed For Dating Archaeological
Pottery
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2003) — The contents of
ancient pottery could help archaeologists resolve some longstanding disputes in
the world of antiquities, thanks to scientists at Britain's University of
Bristol. The researchers have developed the first direct method for dating
pottery by examining animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls.
Archaeologists have long dated sites by the visual appearance of pottery
fragments found around the site. The new analytical technique will allow
archaeologists to more accurately determine the age of pottery and, by
extension, the age of associated artifacts and sites. The research builds on
recent work that has shed light on the types and uses of commodities contained
within the vessels.
The findings will appear in the Sept. 30 edition of Analytical Chemistry, a
peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest
scientific society.
Pottery is essential for classifying archaeological sites. Organic materials,
such as wood and bone, can easily be dated using radiocarbon techniques, but
they aren't always available or reliable. Wood tends to decompose over time, and
animals often dig up bones and move them around a site. Ceramics, however, have
a long and stable lifespan.
"If you go to a site and you find large amounts of Roman pottery, then you
know you've got a Roman site," says Richard Evershed, Ph.D., a chemist at the
University of Bristol and lead author of the paper. "Later pottery, such as
Roman, is relatively easy to date from its appearance, but earlier pottery can
be much harder because of its rough and ready appearance. That's where the
appeal of having a technique like this comes in."
Until now, there has been no direct method for chemically dating pottery.
Previous researchers have analyzed residues found on the surfaces of pots, but
these residues have been in direct contact with the soil and are likely to be
contaminated, according to Evershed.
In earlier research, Evershed and his colleagues examined organic residues
from pottery from Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in Britain, and they
found the first direct evidence that people were dairying as early as 6,000
years ago. During this analysis, they realized that lipids, or animal fats, are
preserved in large enough quantities to be dated with radiocarbon methods. The
prominence of animal fats at these sites is consistent with their wide range of
potential uses in antiquity — as lubricants, waterproofing agents, cosmetics,
ointments, perfumes, varnishes, etc.
"Pottery is unusual in that you get these lipids absorbed into the fabric,
because most interesting pottery of any respectable age is unglazed," Evershed
says. "We're taking a piece of pot and grinding it to a powder, and then
extracting lipid that's penetrated right down into the fabric." The researchers
used a technique called preparative capillary gas chromatography to isolate the
lipids, then they radiocarbon dated purified compounds with an accelerator mass
spectrometer located at the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit.
The researchers analyzed 15 pieces of pottery — mostly cooking jars and bowls
— ranging in age from 4,000 B.C. to the 15th Century A.D. They assigned a date
using the new method and then compared their findings to the historical date
verified previously by association with organic artifacts. In all cases, their
results were in good agreement with the sample history.
The analysis requires partial destruction of the artifacts, but the
researchers didn't run into much opposition along the way. "Museum curators
require some convincing before they let you take their pottery away," Evershed
says. "However, most of this pottery is not display quality material, but is
stored in bags and boxes in the museum archive."
Evershed and his colleagues also plan to use the technique to study mummies.
"A lot of Egyptian mummies were exported out of Egypt by the Victorians, and
they often applied modern treatments to preserve them," Evershed says. The
researchers hope to distinguish between a modern treatment and the original
embalming agent.
The method could eventually be used for a variety of other analyses.
"Potentially, you could date any other material that has preserved organic
compounds," like pitches from wood products or collagen from bones, according to
Evershed. "You could even isolate individual amino acids by this preparative GC
approach, but no one's tried that. That's the next step."
Adapted from materials provided by
American Chemical Society.
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