Akshyeta Suryanarayan

Lipid residues in pottery from the Indus Civilisation in northwest India

An exciting new study that looks at food residues ancient Indus pots found in sites around Rakigarhi to decode the foodstuffs that once were in those pots. By examining the lipids or fatty acids that can be extracted from pots and pottery fragments, investigators were able to determine some of the foodstuffs in the pots. >

Integrating Lipid and Starch Grain Analyses From Pottery Vessels to Explore Prehistoric Foodways in Northern Gujarat, India

Juan José García-Granero

A solid foray into the question of what the ancient Indus people, at least in Gujarat, cooked and ate, and how that might have changed after the civilization seems to have declined. Using some of the latest techniques, in particular by looking for both plant and animal residues in the same analyses… >

Domestic food practice and vessel-use at Salūt-ST1, central Oman, during the Umm an-Nar period

Akshyeta Suryanarayan

A Sherlock Holmes-style investigation into over four thousand year old pots to determine, as best as modern lipid residue analysis allows, the foodstuffs that they once held to draw a bigger and better picture of food practices on the Arabian Gulf during the so-called Umm an-Nar period (ca. 2700-2000 BCE). Many of these pots were imported ancient Indus Black-Slipped Jars. >