LONDON, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol and his colleagues have developed a technique to isolate fatty acids from food residues in pottery for precise radiocarbon dating. Evershed explained that the method has been shown to produce dates accurate to within the span of a human life by comparing the dates obtained from fatty acids with dates obtained from charcoal, seeds, and bones, at sites in Britain, Europe, and Africa. For example, the team recently dated pottery fragments recovered in London’s East End to 5,600 years ago. The pots, which were decorated with fingertip and deer hoof impressions, once held dairy products like butter and cheese made from the milk of cattle and sheep or goats, and stewed beef and mutton. Such Neolithic artifacts rarely survive in the city, explained Jon Cotton of the Museum of London Archaeology, and in this case, no other organic materials for radiocarbon dating were recovered from the site. The dated pottery offers new information about London’s first farmers, he added. To read about bread baked using yeast extracted from ancient Egyptian pottery, go to "Proof Positive."
