Methodological Study On The Application Of Lipid Analysis Into Archaeology

One of the major issues in Archaeological research is to recover the ecological scenario in the ancient time, which is directly related to the paleo-environment, and through which, many important questions in Archaeology and Anthropology can be solved. Conventional methodology in Environmental Archaeology is to identify the taxonomic status of the plant remains by comparative studies on morphology, based on which paleo-vegetation can be investigated. However, if there are no plant remains suitable for morphological studies, techniques in Molecular Biology and Organic Geochemistry must be employed to search deeply for the buried information about the ancient bio-organisms through the investigation of Molecular Biomarker. Therefore, it is of great Archaeological significance to search for the proper candidates for Molecular Biomarker and to set up effective protocols to analyse them.With the vigorous development of Archaeometry, the experimental system for large bio-molecules (e.g. aDNA) has already been established,while the system for the low weight Molecular Biomarker is only far from completion, which is crucial for the Archaeological investigation based on the heavily degraded organic remains.In this consideration, in this project, the factors affecting the labotorial analysis of the low weight molecular biomarkers are investigated,and some residue study is done for the early Neolithic site Xiaohuangshan through Fatty acid analysis. What is more, we did the methodological study on the common techniques for lipid analysis in Organic Geochemistry by comparing the extraction and purification protocols,based on the test result by GC-MS. With some optimizations in the details, a dedicated labotorial system is customized for the effective trace analysis in Archaeological research, which is then applied to the study of n-Alkane analysis in the soil sediment in the stratums of Xiaohuangshan Site in Zhejiang and Yuhui Site in Anhui.To a certain degree, paleo-environmental significance is revealed by the result, which proves that n-Alkane, originated from the cuticular wax lipid of palnts, is a feasible indicator for paleo-environment. Meanwhile, some issues are addressed to meet the reality and unique academic requirement of Archaeological research, which illustrate that much work have to be done before this approach could be applied conventionally in Archaeological research. Furthermore, to get a more reliable scenario of paleo-environment, results from lipid analysis must be combined with the evidence revealed by other approach.