Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:18:29.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

COMPOUND-SPECIFIC RADIOCARBON, STABLE CARBON ISOTOPE AND BIOMARKER ANALYSIS OF MIXED MARINE/TERRESTRIAL LIPIDS PRESERVED IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTTERY VESSELS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

Emmanuelle Casanova Open the ORCID record for Emmanuelle Casanova [Opens in a new window] ,
Timothy D J Knowles ,
Candice Ford ,
Lucy J E Cramp ,
Niall Sharples  and
Richard P Evershed Open the ORCID record for Richard P Evershed [Opens in a new window]
Emmanuelle Casanova
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK
Timothy D J Knowles
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UU, UK
Candice Ford
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK Present address: The University of Nottingham, School of Chemistry, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, 14UK
Lucy J E Cramp
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, 43 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UU, UK
Niall Sharples
Affiliation:
School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, Humanities Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, UK
Richard P Evershed*
Affiliation:
Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UU, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

At archaeological sites located on islands or near the coast, the potential exists for lipid extracts of potsherds to contain fatty acids (FA) from both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, meaning that consideration must be given to marine reservoir effects (MRE) in radiocarbon (14C) analyses. Here we studied the site of Bornais (Outer Hebrides, UK) where a local MRE, ΔR of –65 ± 45 yr was determined through the paired 14C determinations of terrestrial and marine faunal bones. Lipid analysis of 49 potsherds, revealed aquatic biomarkers in 45% of the vessels, and δ13C values of C16:0 and C18:0 FAs revealed ruminant and marine product mixing for 71% of the vessels. Compound-specific 14C analysis (CSRA) of FAs yielded intermediate 14C ages between those of terrestrial and marine bones from the same contexts, confirming an MRE existed. A database containing δ13C values for FAs from reference terrestrial and marine organisms provided endmembers for calculating the percentage marine-derived C (%marine) in FAs. We show that lipid 14C dates can be corrected using determined %marine and ΔR values, such that pottery vessels from coastal locations can be 14C dated by CSRA of FAs.

Keywords

compound-specific radiocarbon analysislipid residuesmarine reservoir effectmixed marine/terrestrial correctionspottery vessels
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 62 , Issue 6: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium , December 2020 , pp. 1679 - 1697
Check for updates
Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 9th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Athens, GA, USA, 20–24 May 2019

References

Ascough, PL, Cook, GT, Dugmore, AJ. 2005. Methodological approaches to determining the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect. Progress in Physical Geography 29(4):532–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascough, PL, Dugmore, AJ, Cook, GT, Higney, E, Barber, J, Scott, EM. 2004. Holocene variations in the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect. Radiocarbon 46(2):611–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascough, PL, Cook, GT, Church, MJ, Dugmore, AJ, Arge, SV, McGovern, TH. 2006. Variability in North Atlantic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects at c. AD 1000. The Holocene 16(1):131–136.Google Scholar
Ascough, PL, Cook, GT, Dugmore, AJ, Scott, EM. 2007. The North Atlantic marine reservoir effect in the Early Holocene: Implications for defining and understanding MRE values. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):438–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascough, PL, Cook, GT, Dugmore, AJ. 2009. North Atlantic marine 14C reservoir effects: implications for late-Holocene chronological studies. Quaternary Geochronology 4(3):171–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ascough, PL, Church, MJ, Cook, GT. 2017. Marine radiocarbon reservoir effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval periods in the Western Isles of Scotland. Radiocarbon 59(1):17–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berstan, R, Stott, AW, Minnitt, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Hedges, REM, Evershed, RP. 2008. Direct dating of pottery from its organic residues: new precision using compound-specific carbon isotopes. Antiquity 82(317):702–713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1025–1045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, E, Knowles, TDJ, Williams, C, Crump, MP, Evershed, RP. 2017. Use of a 700 MHz NMR microcryoprobe for the identification and quantification of exogenous carbon in compounds purified by preparative capillary gas chromatography for radiocarbon determinations. Analytical Chemistry 89(13):7090–7098.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Casanova, E, Knowles, TDJ, Williams, C, Crump, MP, Evershed, RP. 2018. Practical considerations in high precision compound-specific radiocarbon dating: Eliminating the effects of solvent and sample cross-contamination on accuracy and precision. Analytical Chemistry 90(18):11025–11032.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, E, Knowles, TDJ, Bayliss, A, Dunne, J, Barański, M.Z, Denaire, A, Lefranc, P, di Lernia, S, Roffet-Salque, M, Smyth, J, Barclay, AJ, Gillard, T, Claßen, E, Coles, BJ, Illet, M, Jeunesse, C, Krueger, M, Marciniak, A, Minnitt, Rotunno R, Van De Velde, P, van Wijk, I, Cotton, J, Daykin, A, Evershed, RP. In press. Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels. Nature.Google Scholar
Cook, GT, Ascough, PL, Bonsall, C, Hamilton, WD, Russell, N, Sayle, KL, Scott, EM, Bownes, JM. 2015. Best practice methodology for 14C calibration of marine and mixed terrestrial/marine samples. Quaternary Geochronology 27:164–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copley, MS, Berstan, R, Dudd, SN, Docherty, G, Mukherjee, AJ, Straker, V, Payne, S, Evershed, RP 2003. Direct chemical evidence for widespread dairying in prehistoric Britain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100(4):1524–1529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Copley, MS, Hansel, FA, Sadr, K, Evershed, RP. 2004. Organic residue evidence for the processing of marine animal products in pottery vessels from the pre-colonial archaeological site of Kasteelberg D east, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 100(5–6):279–283.Google Scholar
Correa-Ascencio, M, Evershed, RP. 2014. High throughput screening of organic residues in archaeological potsherds using direct acidified methanol extraction. Analytical Methods 6(5):1330–1340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramp, LJE, Evershed, RP. 2014. “Reconstructing aquatic resource exploitation in human prehistory using lipid biomarkers and stable isotope”. In Treatise on geochemistry: Archaeology and anthropology. Amsterdam: Elsevier Oxford 12:319–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cramp, LJE, Evershed, RP, Lavento, M, Halinen, P, Mannermaa, K, Oinonen, M, Kettunen, J, Perola, M, Onkamo, P. Heyd, V. 2014a. Neolithic dairy farming at the extreme of agriculture in northern Europe. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281(1791):20140819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cramp, LJE, Jones, J, Sheridan, A, Smyth, J, Whelton, H, Mulville, J, Sharples, N, Evershed, RP. 2014b. Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the northeast Atlantic archipelagos. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 281(1780):20132372.Google ScholarPubMed
Cramp, LJE, Casanova, E, Evershed, RP. Forthcoming. “Organic residues from Late Iron Age and Norse pottery. A Norse settlement in the Outer Hebrides”. Excavation on Mounds 2 and 2A, Bornais, South Uist. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Dunne, J, Evershed, RP, Salque, M, Cramp, LJE, Bruni, S, Ryan, K, Biagetti, S, di Lernia, S. 2012. First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium BC. Nature 486(7403):390–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evershed, RP, Heron, C, Goad, LJ. 1990. Analysis of organic residues of archaeological origin by high-temperature gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Analyst 115(10):1339–1342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, RP, Copley, MS, Dickson, L, Hansel, FA. 2008. Experimental evidence for the processing of marine animal products and other commodities containing polyunsaturated fatty acids in pottery vessels. Archaeometry 50(1):101–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernandes, R, Millard, AR, Brabec, M, Nadeau, M-J, Grootes, P. 2014. Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals (FRUITS): A Bayesian model for diet reconstruction. PLOS ONE 9(2):e87436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansel, FA, Copley, MS, Madureira, LAS, Evershed, RP. 2004. Thermally produced ω-(o-alkylphenyl) alkanoic acids provide evidence for the processing of marine products in archaeological pottery vessels. Tetrahedron Letters 45(14):2999–3002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansel, FA, Evershed, RP. 2009. Formation of dihydroxy acids from Z-monounsaturated alkenoic acids and their use as biomarkers for the processing of marine commodities in archaeological pottery vessels. Tetrahedron Letters 50(40):5562–5564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, RM, Tiemei, C, Housley, RA. 1992. Results and methods in the radiocarbon dating of pottery. Radiocarbon 34(3):906–915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heron, C, Craig, OE. 2015. Aquatic resources in foodcrusts: Identification and implication. Radiocarbon 57(4):707–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowles, TDJ, Monaghan, PS, Evershed, RP. 2019. Radiocarbon sample preparation procedures and the first status report from the Bristol radiocarbon AMS (BRAMS) facility. Radiocarbon 61(5):1541–1550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, P. 2005. “The Chronology”. In A Norse farmstead in the Outer Hebrides: Excavations at Mound 3, Bornais, South Uist. Oxbow Books(8):153–156.Google Scholar
Marshall, P, Bronk Ramsey, C, Cook, G. 2016. “Chronology”. In A late Iron Age farmstead in the Outer Hebrides: Excavations at Mound 1, Bornais, South Uist. Oxbow Books: 211–223.Google Scholar
Marshall, P, Bronk Ramsey, C, Cook, G. Forthcoming. “The chronology”. In: A Norse settlement in the Outer Hebrides. Excavation on Mounds 2 and 2A, Bornais, South Uist. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, AJ, Copley, MS, Berstan, R, Clark, KA, Evershed, RP. 2005. Interpretation of δ13C values of fatty acids in relation to animal husbandry, food processing and consumption in prehistory. 9th ICAZ Conference. Durham: Oxbow Books. p. 77–93 Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, McCormac, FG, Moore, J, McCormick, F, Murray, EV. 2002. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections for the mid to late Holocene in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic. The Holocene 12(2):129–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, C, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, RW, Reimer, PJ. 2016. An online application for ΔR calculation. Radiocarbon 59:1623–1627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, N, Cook, GT, Ascough, PL, Dugmore, AJ. 2010. Spatial variation in the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect throughout the Scottish post-Roman to late Medieval period: North Sea values (500–1350 BP). Radiocarbon 52(3):1166–1181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, N, Cook, GT, Ascough, P, Barrett, JH, Dugmore, A. 2011. Species specific marine radiocarbon reservoir effect: a comparison of ΔR values between Patella vulgate (limpet) shell carbonate and Gadus morhua (Atlantic cod) bone collagen. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(5):1008–1015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, N, Cook, GT, Ascough, PL, Scott, EM. 2015. A period of calm in Scottish seas: A comprehensive study of ΔR values for the northern British Isles coast and the consequent implications for archaeology and oceanography. Quaternary Geochronology 30: 34–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharples, N, Ingrem, C, Marshall, P, Mulville, J, Powell, A, Reed, K. 2016. “The Viking occupation of the Herbides: evidence from the excavations at Bornais, South Uist”. In: Barrett, J, Gibbon, S-J, editors. Maritime societies of the Viking and medieval world. Monograph 37, chapter 17. Leeds: Maney. p. 247–268.Google Scholar
Sharples, N. Forthcoming. “A Norse settlement in the Outer Hebrides”. In Excavation on Mounds 2 and 2A, Bornais, South Uist. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Sharples, N. and Davis, O. Forthcoming. “The Middle Norse house on Mound 2(BC)”. In Excavation on Mounds 2 and 2A, Bornais, South Uist. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Stott, AW, Berstan, R, Evershed, P, Hedges, REM, Bronk Ramsey, C, Humm, MJ. 2001. Radiocarbon dating of single compounds isolated from pottery cooking vessel residues. Radiocarbon 43(2A):191–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stott, AW, Berstan, R, Evershed, RP, Bronk-Ramsey, C, Hedges, REM, Humm, MJ. 2003. Direct dating of archaeological pottery by compound-specific 14C analysis of preserved lipids. Analytical Chemistry 75(19):5037–5045.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Synal, H-A, Stocker, M, Suter, M. 2007. MICADAS: A new compact radiocarbon AMS system. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259(1):7–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacker, L, Němec, M, Bourquin, J. 2010. A revolutionary graphitisation system: Fully automated, compact and simple. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268(7–8):931–934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacker, L, Fülöp, RH, Hajdas, I, Molnár, M, Rethemeyer, J. 2013. A novel approach to process carbonate samples for radiocarbon measurements with helium carrier gas. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 294:214–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Casanova et al. supplementary material

Casanova et al. supplementary material

Download Casanova et al. supplementary material(File)
File 380.1 KB