Direct ¹⁴C dating of equine products preserved in archaeological pottery vessels from Botai and Bestamak, Kazakhstan.

ABSTRACT: 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 directl

SUBMITTER: Casanova E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9388454 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature