Introduction
Ceramic vessels together with visible charred food remains (so-called foodcrusts) allow detecting the contents of ancient vessels and offer valuable insights into ancient foodways and economy. Foodcrusts can be subject to lipid residue, bulk stable isotope, proteomic, and microfossil analysis. Food-related biomolecules and microremains also absorb into ceramic surfaces, with the lipids, owing to their hydrophobic and relatively stable nature, being the most preserved. Consequently, ceramic matrices are predominantly analysed for lipid residues using various mass-spectrometry methods, but can also reveal some microfossil records.
The quantity of sample required for successful analysis varies depending on the methodology. Below are rough estimations of required samples as per the analytical method:
- microfossil analysis – 1 mg of foodcrust,
- Proteomic analysis – 10 mg of foodcrust,
- bulk stable isotope analysis (with EA-IRMS) – ca 5 mg of foodcrust;
- lipid residue analysis, ca 20 mg foodcrust; at least 0.5 g of homogenised ceramic powder for acid extraction, and around 1 g for solvent extraction.