2007), approximately 99.9 % of the human past is out of history’s reach. Using organic residue analysis to understand early farming practice.

Due to the nature of archaeological excavation, which is always a destructive process, the need for complementary research is therefore essential in order to extract the most information, which can in turn enhance archaeological interpretations.

date of organic material - but an approximate age, usually within a range of a few years either way.

The other method is “Relative Dating” which gives an order of events without giving an exact age (1): typically artefact typology or the study of the sequence of the evolution of fossils.

Radiocarbon dating may only be used on organic materials.

It was recognised early on that the analysis of lipids (i.e.With the application of analytical chemistry, these can then be related back to previous vessel use, ancient diet, trade and economy. E., Jones, J., Sheridan, A., Smyth, J., Whelton, H., Mulville, J., Sharples, N. Although this interdisciplinary research began more than 25 years ago, the archaeological audience is slowly getting familiar with its scope and potential, despite the fact that, according to the recently published Analytical Chemistry in Archaeology (Pollard et al. "Either you do the work or you get the credit" Yakov Zel'dovich - Russian Astrophysicist Fortunately it is not always true.Background We think of a battery today as a source of portable power, but it is no exaggeration to say that the battery is one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind.fats, waxes and resins) preserved in surface residues or the fabric of single potsherds, representative of single vessels, was a powerful method for ascertaining pottery use, with a high degree of specificity.Subsequent developments saw a significant change in scale, with studies often involving lipid analyses of tens to hundreds of potsherds per archaeological assemblage, providing information that extended beyond pottery use.The identification of animal and plant foodstuffs processed in pots provides insights into herding and farming, and can also detect trade in exotic organic goods.Information about the environment and climate can be extrapolated from the isotopic composition of compounds detected in potsherds, potentially providing novel avenues of investigation.The direct dating of lipids in potsherds is opening up new opportunities for building archaeological chronologies, while the integration of lipid residue analyses with other environmental and cultural proxies within interdisciplinary projects is already providing unprecedented insights into past lifestyles, from site to regional scales.The maxim ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’ is often invoked in archaeology, and holds especially true for organic remains, which generally degrade over archaeological timescales.There are three carbon isotopes that occur as part of the Earth's natural processes; these are carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14.The unstable nature of carbon 14 (with a precise half-life that makes it easy to measure) means it is ideal as an absolute dating method.Archaeological chemistry belongs to the broader research field of archaeometry, which represents the application of various scientific analytical techniques to archaeological artefacts. Treatise on geochemistry: archaeology and anthropology. These can include physics, chemistry, biology, palaeoanthropology, mathematics, computer science, etc. Neolithic dairy farming at the extreme of agriculture in Northern Europe.