How Did Mississippians Prepare Maize? The Application of Compound‐Specific Carbon Isotope Analysis to Absorbed Pottery Residues From Several Mississippi Valley Sites

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.     

Poor,ill, and sometimes abandoned: tubercular children in Buenos Aires, 1880-1920

Ill children with chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis, have faced difficult lives. Poverty proved a factor in their susceptibility to disease, their abandonment, and their treatment. When public health policies in Buenos Aires shifted from ignoring children to viewing them as victims who needed protection, government agencies, charitable organizations, public schools, and hospitals developed special programs that emphasized both prevention and cure of childhood tuberculosis. Argentine physicians and hygienists supported programs that were similar to those in Europe and the United States. Despite efforts, from 1880 to 1920, diagnosis of tuberculosis remained problematic, health professionals failed to prevent tuberculosis in children, and physicians were unable to cure the disease.     

The persistence of caffeine in experimentally produced black drink residues

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.     

Lipid Residues from Low‐Fired Pottery

This paper assesses the fate of lipids associated with low‐temperature and pit‐fired pottery to determine to what degree organic compounds persist or are removed during short‐firing episodes below 800 °C. Three different types of clay were fired using contrasting techniques including at 400 °C for 4 h in a muffle furnace, and pit‐firing in which pottery was fired to higher temperatures but for shorter periods of time. Total lipid extracts obtained by solvent extraction of test sherds were screened using gas chromatography‐flame ionization detection (GC‐FID) to determine the lipid concentrations and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to identify the organic compounds present. The results showed that firing of clay removes all naturally occurring alkyl lipids; however, during pit‐firing, diterpenoid lipids were introduced into the clay as a condensate from pine ( Pinus spp.) wood used as fuel. These results confirm that alkyl lipids, e.g., fatty acids, can be reliably associated with the use of vessels, although caution is required when interpreting the origins of lipids that might derive from fuel used in firing.     

Molecular evidence of changing foodways across the Mississippian transition at the George Reeves site (11S650)

ABSTRACT

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 Mississippian Lohmann phase. Pottery use and dietary variation between the Late Woodland and Emergent Mississippian occupations at the site were explored through stylistic analysis, pottery residue analysis, and compound-specific carbon isotopic analysis of pottery residues. Although more samples should be analyzed, diet and pottery use at George Reeves seems to have been varied, with maize present by cal AD 900–1000, but comprising a relatively small portion of lipid residues in pottery. Residue analysis indicates a C₄ presence in 5 of 16 sampled pots from the early Emergent Mississippian deriving from either maize or from meat from animals consuming maize. Pottery residues were mixed, showing C₃ and C₄ plants as well as meat and fish or shellfish. One residue showed a high incidence of C₄ contribution, most likely from Portulaca oleracea (common purslane), as well as large amounts of fish or shellfish and another C₃ plant. Residue from a ceramic pipestem indicates that maize may have been smoked, probably in the form of maize silk mixed with other nontobacco plants.