Resumen de Direct detection of maize in pottery residues via compound specific stable carbon isotope analysis

Eleanora A. Reber, Stephanie N. Dudd, Nikolaas J. van der Merwe, Richard P. Evershed

• Discovering what was cooked in a pot by identifying lipids trapped in the potsherds has been a highly successful method developed in recent years. Here the authors identify a compound which shows the pots had been used to process maize – probably the most important foodstuff in later prehistoric North America. The uptake of maize is confirmed as coincident with the Mississippian fluorescence.