Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria
Ancient starch research illuminates aspects of human ecology and economic botany that drove human evolution and cultural complexity over time, with a special emphasis on past technology, diet, health, and adaptation to changing environments and socio-economic systems. However, lapses in prevailing s...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90080 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49425 |
| _version_ | 1824454793389670400 |
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| author | Mercader, Julio Akeju, Tolutope Brown, Melisa Bundala, Mariam Collins, Matthew J. Copeland, Les Crowther, Alison Dunfield, Peter Henry, Amanda Inwood, Jamie Itambu, Makarius Kim, Joong-Jae Larter, Steve Longo, Laura Oldenburg, Thomas Patalano, Robert Sammynaiken, Ramaswami Soto, María Tyler, Robert Xhauflair, Hermine |
| author2 | Al, Tom A. |
| author_facet | Al, Tom A. Mercader, Julio Akeju, Tolutope Brown, Melisa Bundala, Mariam Collins, Matthew J. Copeland, Les Crowther, Alison Dunfield, Peter Henry, Amanda Inwood, Jamie Itambu, Makarius Kim, Joong-Jae Larter, Steve Longo, Laura Oldenburg, Thomas Patalano, Robert Sammynaiken, Ramaswami Soto, María Tyler, Robert Xhauflair, Hermine |
| author_sort | Mercader, Julio |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Ancient starch research illuminates aspects of human ecology and economic botany that drove human evolution and cultural complexity over time, with a special emphasis on past technology, diet, health, and adaptation to changing environments and socio-economic systems. However, lapses in prevailing starch research demonstrate the exaggerated expectations for the field that have been generated over the last few decades. This includes an absence of explanation for the millennial-scale survivability of a biochemically degradable polymer, and difficulties in establishing authenticity and taxonomic identification. This paper outlines new taphonomic and authenticity criteria to guide future work toward designing research programs that fully exploit the potential of ancient starch while considering growing demands from readers, editors, and reviewers that look for objective compositional identification of putatively ancient starch granules. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:27:57Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/90080 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:27:57Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/900802020-02-26T14:40:56Z Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria Mercader, Julio Akeju, Tolutope Brown, Melisa Bundala, Mariam Collins, Matthew J. Copeland, Les Crowther, Alison Dunfield, Peter Henry, Amanda Inwood, Jamie Itambu, Makarius Kim, Joong-Jae Larter, Steve Longo, Laura Oldenburg, Thomas Patalano, Robert Sammynaiken, Ramaswami Soto, María Tyler, Robert Xhauflair, Hermine Al, Tom A. School of Art, Design and Media Visual arts and music::Art history Ancient Starch Biomolecular Archaeology Ancient starch research illuminates aspects of human ecology and economic botany that drove human evolution and cultural complexity over time, with a special emphasis on past technology, diet, health, and adaptation to changing environments and socio-economic systems. However, lapses in prevailing starch research demonstrate the exaggerated expectations for the field that have been generated over the last few decades. This includes an absence of explanation for the millennial-scale survivability of a biochemically degradable polymer, and difficulties in establishing authenticity and taxonomic identification. This paper outlines new taphonomic and authenticity criteria to guide future work toward designing research programs that fully exploit the potential of ancient starch while considering growing demands from readers, editors, and reviewers that look for objective compositional identification of putatively ancient starch granules. Published version 2019-07-18T04:35:41Z 2019-12-06T17:40:14Z 2019-07-18T04:35:41Z 2019-12-06T17:40:14Z 2018 Journal Article Mercader, J., Akeju, T., Brown, M., Bundala, M., Collins, M. J., Copeland, L., . . . & Xhauflair, H. (2018). Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria. FACETS, 3(1), 777-798. doi:10.1139/facets-2017-0126 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90080 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49425 10.1139/facets-2017-0126 en FACETS © 2018 Mercader et al. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. 22 p. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Visual arts and music::Art history Ancient Starch Biomolecular Archaeology Mercader, Julio Akeju, Tolutope Brown, Melisa Bundala, Mariam Collins, Matthew J. Copeland, Les Crowther, Alison Dunfield, Peter Henry, Amanda Inwood, Jamie Itambu, Makarius Kim, Joong-Jae Larter, Steve Longo, Laura Oldenburg, Thomas Patalano, Robert Sammynaiken, Ramaswami Soto, María Tyler, Robert Xhauflair, Hermine Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title | Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title_full | Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title_fullStr | Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title_short | Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| title_sort | exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria |
| topic | Visual arts and music::Art history Ancient Starch Biomolecular Archaeology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90080 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/49425 |
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