Detection of palm fruit lipids in archaeological pottery from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia

Abstract

In modern times, the trees of the palm family have been of great economic and social importance to the people in Egypt, as in other parts of the world. There are various species of palm and although di¡erent parts of the tree can be used, the fruit are of great value. In antiquity, it is expected that the palm fruit would also have been of great importance to people in the region. The chemical analysis of absorbed residues in archaeological pottery is well established, and through the investigation of ceramic vessels (via gas chromatography, gas chromatography^mass spectrometry and gas chromatography^combustionî sotope ratio mass spectrometry) saturated carboxylic acids in the range C 12 to C 18 have been detected (with an unusually high abundance of C 12 ) from vessels from the Nubian site of Qasr Ibrim. This is mirrored in the saturated fatty acid distributions detected from the kernels of modern and ancient date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and dom palm (Hyphaena thebaica (L.) Mart.). Mixing in some of the vessels of the palm fruit with another lipid source is indicated through the 13 C values. These results provide the ¢rst direct evidence for the exploitation of palm fruit in antiquity and the use of pottery vessels in its processing.

Short- and long-term foraging and foddering strategies of domesticated animals from Qasr Ibrim, Egypt

“…Furthermore, it has been shown that this level of preservation is also mirrored at the molecular level in archaeological plant remains (e.g. [22,52]) and lipids in pottery vessels [7][8][9].…”

Dairying in antiquity. II. Evidence from absorbed lipid residues dating to the British Bronze Age

“…[3,10,12]). Although degradation occurs during burial, appreciable amounts of lipid can survive over archaeological time periods.…”

Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya

“…Dudd and Evershed 1998;Evershed et al 2002;Copley et al 2003;Evershed et al 2008;Dunne et al 2012;Debono Spiteri et al 2016). Likewise, aquatic products (Patrick et al 1985;Hansel et al 2004;Craig et al 2007;Hansel and Evershed 2009;Shoda et al 2017), plant oils and waxes denoting vegetable and plant oil consumption/ processing (Evershed et al 1991;Copley et al 2001a;Copley et al 2001b;Reber et al 2004;Copley et al 2005;Cramp et al 2011;Dunne et al 2016) and beeswax (Heron et al 1994;Charters et al 1995;Evershed et al 1997b;Regert et al 2001;Evershed et al 2003;Roffet-Salque et al 2015), resins, tars and bitumen (Beck et al 1989;Mills and White 1989;Evershed et al 1997a;van Bergen et al 1997;Urem-Kotsou et al 2002;Stern et al 2003;Buckley et al 2004;Stern et al 2008;Connan et al 2013;Brown et al 2014: Brettell et al 2014 have been identified in connection with a wide range of technological and cultural activities. On a broader scale, lipid residue analyses can provide insight into the domestication of plants and animals, the development of animal husbandry practices and ecological and environmental changes through time (Evershed 2008b;Evershed et al 2008;…”