Stephanie Noelle Harden

Waters Corporation · Waters European Headquarters

The stable carbon isotope (delta13C) compositions of individual fatty acid components of remnant fats preserved in archaeological pottery vessels show that dairying was a component of archaeological economies. Characteristic delta13C values arise from biases in the biosynthetic origins of the C18:0 fatty acids in milk and adipose fat. Milk and adip...

Under ever-increasing demands to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the implementation of rigid processes, standardisation and high throughput workflows have made a significant difference to the way quality control (QC) laboratories operate. The perceived, and sometimes real, challenges associated with the introduction of relatively complex analy...

An ultrasensitive nano UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method is developed to simultaneously monitor three low-concentration neuromedin-like peptides in microdialysates. Peptide preconcentration and sample desalting is performed online on a trap column. A shallow gradient slope at 300 nl/min on the analytical column maintained at 35°C, followed by two saw-tooth co...

By extracting residues from pottery sherds the authors show that it is possible to say whether they had contained dairy or carcass fat residues. Correlation with faunal assemblages showed a good match between the incidence of dairy fat in pottery which implied a strong dairy fraction in the diet and a milking herd implied by the animal bones. They...

The evidence for dairying in antiquity has, until recently, primarily been restricted to the reconstruction of herd structures through the analysis of faunal remains. Using this method alone cannot provide definitive evidence for the presence of dairy herds, due to differences in the recovery of animal bones at sites and the many different farming...

Absorbed lipid residue analysis has previously demonstrated that dairying was a major component of animal husbandry in Britain during both the Iron Age and Bronze Age. As a continuation of this research into the antiquity of dairying, the incidence of dairy fats associated with pottery vessels from six Neolithic sites from Southern Britain is prese...

Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize - probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as co...

The chemical analyses of "bog butters" recovered from peat bogs of Scotland were performed with the aim of determining their origins. Detailed compositional information was obtained from "bog butter" lipids using high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicate the degree to which "bog butters" have...

Domesticated animals formed an important element of farming practices in prehistoric Britain, a fact revealed through the quantity and variety of animal bone typically found at archaeological sites. However, it is not known whether the ruminant animals were raised purely for their tissues (e.g., meat) or alternatively were exploited principally for...

Coarseware vessels from excavations at Isthmia, Greece, in contexts dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, resemble ceramic beehives used by the ancient Greeks and still in recent use on the Cycladic islands and Crete. Chemical investigations of absorbed residues were performed with the aim of obtaining direct evidence for the use of these...

The possibility of obtaining molecular information from lipid residues associated with archaeological pottery has dramatically increased the potential for deriving new information on the use of ancient vessels and the commodities processed therein. Motivated by the high proportion of the archaeological potsherds that have been shown to contain anim...

Animal fats are preserved at archaeological sites in association with unglazed pottery, human and animal remains, and other deposits or hoards. High-temperature gas chromatography (HT-GC) and combined HT-GC/mass spectrometry (HT-GC/MS) has confirmed the presence of animal fats in lipid extracts of artifacts. Degradation products and pathways have b...

Reliable information relating to sources and sinks of CO2 is essential when moni- toring changes in atmospheric emissions, effects of emission reduction strategies and general carbon cycling within a given ecosystem. Studies of CO2 sampled from at- mospheric and soil gases often involve the analysis of large numbers of samples re- quiring high thro...

The excavation of a barrow at Upper Ninepence, Walton in the Welsh Borderlands, U.K., revealed two phases of occupation associated with two different ceramic traditions, namely Grooved Ware (2500bc) and Peterborough Ware (3000bc). The Grooved Ware and Peterborough Ware pits seem to have a mutually exclusive distribution on the site. Screening of th...

A new method is described for distinguishing between animal fats preserved in ancient pottery. Analysis of lipid fractions from two morphologically distinct vessel types (lamps and “dripping dishes”) using on-line gas chromatography–combustion–isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC–C–IRMS) showed that they could be distinguished by plotting the δ13C v...

Studies performed during the last two decades have shown that lipids are preserved in association with a wide range of artefact and ecofacts recovered from archaeological sites, e.g. pottery vessels and skeletal remains. The majority of work in thi area has focused on the use of molecular structures (‘biomarkers’) and distributions (‘fingerprints’)...

At least three series of previously unreported components of ancient birch bark tars have been identified by electron and chemical ionisation mass spectrometry as comprising betulin (lup-20(29)-en-3β,28-diol), lupa-2,20(29)-dien-28-ol and lupeol esterified to fatty acids. Since such components are not present in fresh bark or pyrolysates thereof it...

Ceramic vessels from neolithic levels of Chalain lake (Jura, France) are characterised by the presence of charred residues adhering to their surface. These residues and the organic materials absorbed in the unglazed potsherds have been chemically investigated in order to provide a better understanding of pottery function on this site and to identif...

In order to better interpret the origins of degraded fats and plant oils, experiments have been performed in the laboratory to simulate the decay of such commodities during burial. The progress of decay of various acyl lipids (milk and olive oil) and pure compounds (triolein and tristearin) has been monitored for up to 126 days. A general pattern e...

While oxidation products of unsaturated fatty acids, for example dicarboxylic acids (hereafter diacids), must form during the use of unglazed ceramic vessels for the processing of animal and plant products, such components have never been observed during studies of absorbed lipids. Their absence from the extractable lipid fraction is presumed to be...

What was burned in lamps in the prehistoric Mediterranean? Olive oil, as one would first suppose? Analysis of absorbed lipids preserved in the fabric of lamps and conical cups from the Minoan site of Mochlos in eastern Crete shows for the first time that beeswax was used as an illuminant.

R.P. Evershed, H.R. Mottram, S.N. Dudd, S. Charters, A.W. Stott,G.J. LawrenceOrganic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, Cantock’s Close,University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UKA.M. GibsonClwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, 7a Church Street, Welshpool Powys,SY21 7DL, UKA. ConnerCambridgeshire County Council Archaeology Unit, Fulbourne Communit...

Studies of organic residues preserved in unglazed archaeological pottery have revealed the presence of homologous series of long-chain ketones containing 29–35 carbon atoms. The C31, C33 and C35 ketones are particularly abundant and exhibit a distinct monomidal distribution. The presence of long-chain ketones in potsherds is usually ascribed to the...

Structural and Isotopic (δ13C) evidence indicates the formation of series of long-chain ketones in archaeological pottery can occur by condensation of long-chain carboxylic acids. The formation of the ketones is confirmed by pyrolysis of free fatty acids or triacylglyecrols in the presence of fired clay matrix.

Introduction Extreme alcohol consumption in man is socially disruptive and can lead to significant levels of liver injury. In this study a rodent “intragastric feeding model” was used together with accurate mass LC/MS/MS analysis to determine changes in the global metabolic profiles in both plasma and urine. The resulting raw data obtained was an...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Bristol, 1999.