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The George Reeves site (11S650) is a multicomponent village on the bluffs in the central American Bottom, Illinois. The site was occupied from the Late Woodland Rosewood phase through the Mississip...

Obtaining radiocarbon assays on objects of chronological interest is always preferable to obtaining assays on spatially associated charcoal. The development of Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) dating has expanded the number of objects that can be directly assayed because it requires only a few milligrams of material. Pottery can be directly assayed when charred cooking residues adhering to the interior walls are present. The accuracy of AMS ages derived from residues has been questioned in cases where cooking freshwater aquatic organisms may have introduced carbon from ancient carbon reservoirs into residues. Here we provide analytic protocols for examination of this phenomenon and the results of systematic modeling of age estimates on residues formed from fish and maize with varying percentages of dead carbon. We present a regional case study using a large series of AMS age estimates on residues from the Finger Lakes region of northeastern United States to demonstrate how the paleolimnological record and lipid analysis of residues can help to determine if dates on residues from a given region are likely to have been affected by the presence of ancient carbon. In the case of the Finger Lakes, there is no evidence that ancient carbon affected the age estimates.

The Angel Mounds site has the largest number of negative painted pottery sherds of any single site in the Eastern Woodlands. Previous research by Sherri Hilgeman (1985, 1991, 2000) on this pottery type has provided a detailed description of its variation in form, style, and age. Her investigation also attempted to determine its function and method of manufacture, utilizing ethnohistorical and experimental archaeology data. This article summarizes preliminary studies to both test and expand on Hilgeman's research of negative painted pottery with an intrasite spatial study, an organic residue analysis to determine its use, and geochemical techniques to define its manufacture and source.

Black drink is a native North American caffeinated tea produced from the leaves of Ilex vomitoria . The beverage was an important part of prehistoric Southeastern culture, as it was the only native source of caffeine in North America. The leaves of I. vomitoria were, therefore, a potentially valuable trade resource during the period. As such, the ability to identify archaeological black drink residues is useful to Southeastern archaeologists. In order to determine the plausibility of detecting I. vomitoria in residues, black drink was repeatedly produced in experimental unglazed pottery. The resulting potsherds were buried in several environmental contexts, recovered, and underwent absorbed pottery residue analysis. After two months of burial in three different soil types, plus a control stored in the freezer, caffeine was well-preserved in all sherds, suggesting that caffeine is a potentially useful biomarker for the detection of black drink.

A complete subglobular bottle was excavated from a linear feature at the Moundville site in the Black Warrior Valley of Alabama, dating to A.D. 1200–1500. Absorbed residue from the bottle and soil contained within the vessel were extracted, analyzed, and compared with residue from soil outside of the bottle. The residues suggest that the bottle was buried containing a stew or soup made with meat and a wide range of plants, rather than a tea or ritual beverage, which would have been the expected contents of a bottle based on vessel form. The bottle contents identified through residue analysis indicates that the vessel and its contents were an offering of food for the deceased.

Analysis was performed on absorbed and visible residues from 21 New York State prehistoric pottery sherds dating from 2905 ± 35 bp (Intcal04) (1256–998 cal bc) to 425 ± 40 bp (Intcal04) (1417–1626 cal ad). The use of pine resin was detected in 10 of 12 absorbed residue samples and 11 of 17 sherds subjected to visible residue analysis. It seems likely that the pots were resin-sealed to make them more impermeable, constituting the first chemical evidence of extensive resin-sealing in North America. A comparison of the results of absorbed and visible residues from eight of the sherds indicates that the two kinds of residue provide complementary evidence of vessel use.

In a series of recent publications, Truncer (1999, 2004a, 2004b, 2006) presents a hypothesis that during what he interprets as the peak period of use (2500-1500 cal. B.C.) in eastern North America, steatite (soapstone) vessels were specialized cooking tools used to process mast. A key component of Truncer's hypothesis building is his interpretation of an analysis of fatty acids extracted from charred residue adhering to four steatite sherds, which he interpreted to be consistent with mast. This is the only component of his hypothesis building that directly links steatite vessel use to mast processing. Here we convey the results of a reassessment of Truncer's analytical results and the results of our own analysis of phytoliths and fatty acids extracted from charred residue adhering to three sherds from the Hunter's Home site. Our results undermine this key component of Truncer's hypothesis building and therefore the hypothesis itself.

Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize – probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as coincident with the Mississippian fluorescence.

Starchy grains are an essential part of human diet in most agricultural groups, and are attributed an important role in the development of complex societies. Maize is a starchy grain domesticated in Mesoamerica that was an important foodstuff throughout the Americas before Contact, and around the world afterwards. An experimental study of the degradation of maize lipids suggests that the unsaturated fatty acids comprising the majority of maize lipids degrade rapidly, producing a virtually unidentifiable organic residue after 3 months deposition. Compounds in maize lipids decompose variably, depending upon depositional environment, making calibration of organic residue degradation impracticable. Variable decomposition of components of absorbed organic residues makes a wider range of improved experimental studies important, and suggests that identifying maize, and by implication starchy grains, from chemical analysis of absorbed organic residues requires a wider range of approaches than those previously attempted.

A newly developed compound-specific stable carbon isotope technique allows the detection of maize in absorbed organic pottery residues. This method was applied to absorbed organic residues from a variety of Mississippi Valley potsherds, and successfully identified maize components. Maize was cooked in sampled vessels less often than expected, but otherwise fitted expected patterns of maize use derived from stable carbon isotope analysis of human bone from the region. Absorbed organic pottery residue analysis is useful in determining pottery use, particularly in concert with other analytical methods.

The analysis of organic remains left on pottery, stone tools, or other archaeological artifacts is important because it shows how humans used artifacts. Residues can come in many forms. Visible residues can be seen on the surfaces of stone tools and pots, and can include microscopic remains, as well as biochemical clues. Absorbed residues have soaked into a pot wall and are invisible until destructively extracted. A variety of archaeometric techniques may be used on organic residues, depending on the type of residue and the sort of information being sought by the analyst. Chemical components of residues have generally undergone some sort of degradation through time and environmental effects, and interpretation of chemical residues must take this into account. In general, a combination of analysis types is most effective, if it is possible to do this.

People of the Shoals: Stallings Culture of the Savannah River Valley. Kenneth E. Sassaman. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. 193 pp.