Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Plant exudates are a chemically diverse class of materials that includes resins, gums, kinos, rubber, lacquer, balsams, and amber. These materials appear in the archaeological, anthropological, botanical, and historical records worldwide as adhesives, binders, and coatings, in molded and sculpted forms, and as substances used in medicines, incense, and foods. Despite widespread use and numerous applications (both utilitarian and ceremonial), there has been much less research on the characterization and use of plant exudates in the Americas than in Europe and Asia. This session is focused on exudates in material culture, including studies on identification, chemical fingerprinting, botanical and geographic sourcing, experimental archaeology, processing, and trade/exchange. For this session, we extend the range of materials under consideration to include analogous materials like shellac, waxes, tars, and bitumen. Contributions from all disciplines are invited.