Investigating the function of prehistoric stone bowls and griddle stones in the Aleutian Islands by lipid residue analysis

The earliest durable cooking technologies found in Alaska are stone bowls and griddle stones recovered from the Aleutian Islands. This paper aims to identify the function of these artefacts. Molecular and chemical analysis of carbonised residues found on their surfaces confirm that these artefacts w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quaternary Research
Main Authors: Admiraal, Marjolein, Lucquin, Alexandre, von Tersch, Matthew, Jordan, Peter D., Craig, Oliver E.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Durable container technologies
Aleutian Islands
Stone bowls
Griddle stones
Oil rendering
Cooking
Lipid residue analysis
Compound specific isotopes
Maritime adaptation
Neoglacial
HUNTER-GATHERER POTTERY
AQUATIC RESOURCES
CULTURAL-CHANGE
PRODUCTS
ISOTOPE
ACIDS
IDENTIFICATION
COMMODITIES
EXTRACTION
CONTINUITY
Sea ice
Alaska
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/05ab9448-be74-42c0-aaec-23212ab956a2
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/05ab9448-be74-42c0-aaec-23212ab956a2
https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2018.31
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/82565167/investigating_the_function_of_prehistoric_stone_bowls_and_griddle_stones_in_the_aleutian_islands_by_lipid_residue_analysis.pdf
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/133427/1/Last_version_after_review_Admiraal_et_al._QR_Aleutian_SI_Review_MA.pdf
Description
Summary:The earliest durable cooking technologies found in Alaska are stone bowls and griddle stones recovered from the Aleutian Islands. This paper aims to identify the function of these artefacts. Molecular and chemical analysis of carbonised residues found on their surfaces confirm that these artefacts were used to process marine resources. Both artefacts have high lipid content and C:N ratios, suggesting they were used to process oily substances. Stable isotope results of individual lipids suggest that they were used to process different sets of resources within the aquatic spectrum as griddle stones have slightly more 13C depleted lipids than stone bowls, possibly indicating more variable use. Integration of these results with archaeological and ethnographic data lead us to infer that griddle stones were used for the cooking of a diversity of aquatic resources, possibly with the addition of plant foods, whereas stone bowls were specifically used to render marine mammal fats. We further hypothesize that a sudden peak in stone bowl frequencies at 4000-3000 cal yr BP was connected to a Neoglacial cold spell bringing sea-ice conditions to the Aleutian Islands. This may have led to new subsistence strategies in which the rendering of marine mammal fats played a central role.

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