Direct 14C dating of equine products preserved in archaeological pottery vessels from Botai and Bestamak, Kazakhstan
Casanova E. Knowles T.D.J. Outram A.K. Stear N.A. Roffet-Salque M. Zaibert V. Logvin A. Shevnina I. Evershed R.P.
September 2022Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
2022#14Issue 9
Direct and accurate radiocarbon dating of lipid residues preserved in ceramics is a recently established method that allows direct dating of specific food products and their inception in human subsistence strategies. The method targets individual fatty acids originating from animal fats such as ruminant dairy, ruminant adipose, non-ruminant adipose and aquatic fats. Horse lipid residues found in Central Asian pottery vessels are also directly dateable using this new method. Here we present the identification of equine lipid residues preserved in two pottery assemblages from the Neolithic and Eneolithic in Kazakhstan and their direct 14C dating. The site of Botai, previously radiocarbon-dated to the 4th millennium BC, was used as a reference to evaluate the dates obtained directly on horse lipids. The direct dating of equine products extracted from Botai potsherds are shown to be compatible with previous 14C dates at the site. The site of Bestamak, lacking previous14C measurements, had been relatively dated to the Neolithic based on pottery typologies. The direct dating of equine residues made it possible to anchor the pottery assemblage of Bestamak in the 6th millennium BC confirming their Neolithic attribution. These findings demonstrate the potential for dating horse products through a compound-specific approach, while highlighting challenges in 14C dating individual fatty acids from lipid extracts in which their abundances differ substantially.
Ceramics , Equine products , Kazakhstan , Radiocarbon dating
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Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock’s Close, Bristol, BS81TS, United Kingdom
UMR7209 Archaeozoology and Archaeobotany, Centre national de la recherche scientifique/Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CP56 55 rue Buffon, Paris, 75005, France
Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS81UU, United Kingdom
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, United Kingdom
Institute of Archaeology and Steppe Civilizations, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 71 Al-Farabi St, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Archaeological Laboratory, Kostanay Regional University Named After A. Baitursynov, Baitursynov St., 47, Kostanay, Kazakhstan
Organic Geochemistry Unit
UMR7209 Archaeozoology and Archaeobotany
Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility
Department of Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology and Steppe Civilizations
Archaeological Laboratory
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