Investigating Southeastern United States Early Pottery Uses through Lipid Residue Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent archaeological evidence suggests that shell rings are not only potential origin points for pottery in North America, but also places where people lived and feasted. Techniques borrowed from analytical chemistry now allow archaeologists to test these hypotheses. Lipid analysis was conducted on 60 potsherds and 20 baked clay objects, the latter thought to have been used as boiling stones. These artefacts were uncovered at St. Catherines and McQueen, two well-known shell rings located on St. Catherines Island, off the coast of Georgia (USA), and occupied between approx. 4300 and 3800 years BP. Data obtained thus far suggest the presence of plant and animal-derived lipids in residues from both sites, but no contribution from aquatic resources. Also interesting are molecular signals from baked clay objects, which indicate they have been used for processing resources, a hypothesis so far untested by lipid analysis. These preliminary results allow for a better understanding of Late Archaic period foodways and early pottery uses in Southeastern United States.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40030.0