"土器残存脂質分析の成果と日本考古学への応用可能性"

"This paper aims to evaluate the usefulness of pottery lipid analysis in Japanese archaeology. In Japan, this" "method was once considered to be quite unreliable because one of the studies concluded that they had identified fat of extinct animals such as Naumann elephant or Giant elk on the stone tools which themselves were revealed to be a fraud. However, because of their chemical structure, lipids are relatively more robust and less soluble in water than carbohydrate or protein and they preserve well in pottery matrices or in adhering charred residues. Consequently, lipids can be highly useful for determining what kinds of products were cooked in pottery vessels. Methods such as identification of biomarkers by GC-MS and measurement of isotopic values at the molecular level by GC-c-IRMS have revolutionized the accuracy and applicability of this approach overseas. In contrast, during the last twenty years, organic residue analysis has been rarely considered in Japan. By reviewing major achievements of pottery lipid analysis in overseas, especially focusing on recent development of this method in the United Kingdom, the authors try to raise awareness of organic residue analysis in Japan, as well as to indicate its" "potential to the rich Japanese ceramic record."