Pots for the afterlife : organic residue analysis of British early Bronze age pottery from funerary contexts
This research was undertaken to investigate the extent and nature of absorbed organic residues preserved in British Early Bronze Age pottery. Previous work on prehistoric vessels has shown a good preservation of various lipid classes however the focus of the research was predominantly domestic pottery. The Early Bronze Age was chosen as the main chronological focus due to several crucial developments occurring in the Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age transition, including a more sedentary lifestyle, adoption of individual burials and new practices of ritually depositing pottery together with the deceased. The analysis of absorbed lipid residues included 471 Early Bronze Age potshards from 136 archaeological sites encompassing a variety of burial settings and charactenstic pottery types such as Collared Urns, Food Vessels, Beakers and Trevisker Ware. The overall lipid preservation was good and comparable to previously analysed Bronze Age pottery with 50.3% of potsherds yielding appreciable lipid concentrations (>5 ÎŒg g-l). Upon comparison of mean values inter-typologically it was possible to observe higher lipid concentrations preserved within funerary vessels, with the exception of Beakers yielding the lowest
Soberl, Lucija
Pots for the afterlife : organic residue analysis of British early Bronze age pottery from funerary contexts. This research was undertaken to investigate the extent and nature of absorbed organic residues preserved in British Early Bronze Age pottery. Previous work on prehistoric vessels has shown a good preservation of various lipid classes however the focus of the research was predominantly domestic pottery. The Early Bronze Age was chosen as the main chronological focus due to several crucial developments occurring in the Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age transition, including a more sedentary lifestyle, adoption of individual burials and new practices of ritually depositing pottery together with the deceased. The analysis of absorbed lipid residues included 471 Early Bronze Age potshards from 136 archaeological sites encompassing a variety of burial settings and charactenstic pottery types such as Collared Urns, Food Vessels, Beakers and Trevisker Ware. The overall lipid preservation was good and comparable to previously analysed Bronze Age pottery with 50.3% of potsherds yielding appreciable lipid concentrations (>5 ÎŒg g-l). Upon comparison of mean values inter-typologically it was possible to observe higher lipid concentrations preserved within funerary vessels, with the exception of Beakers yielding the lowest
afterlife organic_residue analysis british early_bronze age pottery funerary_context undertaken investigate_extent nature absorb organic_residue preserve british early_bronze_age pottery previous_work prehistoric vessel show good preservation various lipid class however focus predominantly domestic pottery early_bronze_age chosen main chronological focus due several crucial_development occur late_neolithic early_bronze_age transition include sedentary lifestyle adoption individual burial new practice deposit pottery together decease analysis absorb lipid residue include early_bronze_age archaeological_site encompass variety burial setting pottery_type food vessels ware overall lipid preservation good comparable previously analyse bronze_age pottery yield lipid concentration upon comparison mean_value inter typologically possible observe high lipid concentration preserve within funerary vessel exception yield low