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Theory and practice of archaeological residue analysis
Many are working to understand the organic residues found, with a variety of techniques, in archaeological artifacts. After a successful symposium on 'Nomads in Archaeology', during the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology (Montreal, April 2004), it was decided to bring together a symposium on this subject.

The purpose of this symposium, to be part of the 70th SAA meeting (Salt Lake City, 30 March - 3 April 2005), is to survey ways in which data on archaeological residues can be interpreted
and what place the techniques collecting such data might have within archaeology and anthropology.

  
The proceedings of our symposium are published in the British Archaeological Reports International Series 1650 (2007). The Table of Contents and sample pages can be found here.
Given the limited time made available by the SAA for presentations, and the lack of opportunity for discussion, all contributors will be asked to produce a short article in which they are invited to address the points that they had to leave out of their paper for lack of time. These proceedings will be published as soon as possible after the meeting.

Furthermore, the
usual discussant at the end of the session will be asked to mediate a short debate between the audience and the speakers, rather than summarize the presentations. 
To provide a focus for the discussion sherds will be circulated for analysis. The vessel that is available for this experiment has been used for a single cooking event, of a single food stuff, and should preserve a residue of lipids as well as proteins.

The purpose of this exercise is not to find the actual residue, or to establish the definitive method to do so, but to learn how the same (simulated) archaeological artifact can be approached. The results of this 'round robin' experiment will be an important part of the publication on this symposium.
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:
Name(s):
Affiliation:
Title:

Hans Barnard
Cotsen Institute for Archaeology,
University of California, Los Angeles
Theory and Practice of Archaeological Residue Analysis and the 'Round Robin' Experiment
Dana Beehr and
Stan Ambrose
Department of Anthropology,
University of Illinois, Urbana

Reconstructing Mississippian Diet in the American Bottom with Stable Isotope Ratios of Pot Sherd Residues
Ran Boytner
Cotsen Institute for Archaeology,
University of California, Los Angeles

Discussant
Jim Cassidy
Department of Anthropology,
University of California, Santa Barbara
Subsistence Change during the Final Neolithic in the Russian Far East as revealed by Fatty Acid Residue Analysis
Jelmer Eerkens
Department of Anthropology,
University of California, Davis
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) Analysis of Fatty Acids in Ancient Potsherds
Marcus Forster,
Carl Heron,
Ben Stern,
Oliver Craig and
Søren Andersen

University of Bradford (Great Britain),
University of Rome (Italy) and the
National Museum of Denmark


The Contents of Late Mesolithic/Neolithic Ceramics from Denmark


Michael Gregg
University of Toronto (Canada)
Survival of Organic Residues in Pottery from Southwest Asia during the Early Holocene
Hanneke Hoekman-Sites Florida State University
Using Residue Analysis to Confirm Trade Connections at Pella, Jordan
Rheta Lanehart,
Robert Tykot,
Anne Underhill,
Fengshi Luan and
Hui Fang
University of South Florida,
The Field Museum and
Shandong University (China)
Residue Analysis of Pottery Sherds from Liangchengzhen, Shandong, China
(presentation withdrawn)

Marlize Lombard and
Lyn Wadley

Natal Museum (South Africa)
Blind Testing for the Recognition of Residues using Light Microscopy: Results and Lessons learnt
Robert Lusteck
University of Minnesota
Residues of Maize in North American Pottery: What Phytoliths can add to the Story of Maize
Mary Malainey
Department of Anthropology,
Brandon University (Canada)
Fatty Acid Analysis of Archaeological Residues: Procedures and Possibilities
Sean Rafferty
Department of Anthropology,
University at Albany
The Archaeology of Alkaloids
Eleanora Reber
Anthropology Program,
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
The Well-Tempered Pottery Analysis: Residue and Typological Analysis of Potsherds from the Lower Mississippi Valley
Micala Rider,
Paul Fish,
William Longacre,
Matthew Young and
Mark Malcomson

University of Arizona
Residue Analysis of Fatty Acids preserved in Pottery Sherds: Method of Interpretation to Account for the Possible Pitfalls in Analysis

Henry Schwarcz and
Shannon Coyston
School of Geography and Geology,
McMaster University (Canada)
Search for Trace Lipid Residues in Mayan Sherds (presentation withdrawn)
Paola Villa
University of Colorado Museum
Discussant
Robert Parr and
Robert Yohe
Center for Archaeological Research and
California State University, Bakersfield
The Effects of High Temperatures on the Identification of Protein Residues: Preliminary Results of Experiments using Counter-immunoelectrophoresis (presentation withdrawn)

Hans Barnard (UCLA) and Jelmer Eerkens (UC Davis)
c/o PO-box 951511; Los Angeles, CA 90095
Your suggestions, additions, comments and corrections are welcome and your participation even more so.
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