Abstract

Chemical analyses of carbonized organic residues deposited on or impregnated into the walls of ceramic, stone, metal or glass vessels offer the unique opportunity of a direct study on the contents of these objects. Culinary, storage, preparation or serving vessels contain invisible information that new analytical techniques can decipher, providing a wealth of information on the ingredients used, their preparation and consumption methods. Lipids, proteins, phenols, alkaloids, nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) – there are numerous chemical families, each requiring specific sample preparation protocols and analytical techniques adapted to their characterization. The range of methods is wide, and so is the relevance of the proposed results. In this article, we provide a brief summary of the methodologies currently used by the various laboratories specializing in the analysis of archaeological organic materials, and propose a multi-analytical methodology based on metabolomics and proteomics, the two most recent high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques for the precise characterization of complex molecular mixtures.