Meat, milk and plant oils: characterising products in Early Bronze Age pottery from the Oman Peninsula through lipid residue analysis

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• Akshyeta Suryanarayan, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford
• Friday 16 February 2024, 13:15-14:00
• Seminar Room, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Rosie Crawford.

This event is in person but livestreamed free here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkd-GuqDMpHdSEt5XRFSz5zH6iKXfuB86L

During the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the Oman peninsula, the Umm an-Nar period (c. 2700-2000 BC) marked the development of many ‘firsts’ in the region. Increasing sedentism and the establishment of settlements with monumental stone or mudbrick ‘towers’ and associated mudbrick constructions developed in combination with the growth of oasis agriculture and the rise of a shared regional material culture and local pottery, stone and copper industries. There was also an increase in the scale and intensity of long-distance exchange networks throughout the Persian Gulf in which Umm an-Nar communities played an important role. This talk will present the results of lipid residue analysis of pottery produced at local and regional scales, as well as imported pottery coming from Mesopotamia, SE Iran and the Indus Civilisation, from sites in the Oman Peninsula to explore what kinds of organic products were used and/or consumed in daily subsistence activities, as well as what products may have been moved from afar. Lipids were extracted from pottery and analysed via Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and a subset was analysed via Gas Chromatography-combustion-Isotopic Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-c-IRMS) to distinguish between terrestrial and marine sources and dairy and ruminant carcass fats. The results highlight the importance of pastoral products, such as meat and dairy products, but also suggest the presence of plant oils and other plant products in different vessels. The direct identification and characterisation of archaeologically ‘invisible’ products (cf. Crawford 1973) that were contained in ceramic vessels using sensitive chemical techniques provide a new means to interrogate the relationship between people, the environment and networks of exchange in the Oman Peninsula.

This talk is part of the Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar Series
• Seminar Room, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site

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