Organic Residue Analysis (ORA)
Housed in the School of Chemistry and the School of Arts, the ORA service works with academic and commercial users to address archaeological queries using state-of-the-art instrumentation and expertise. Results can help to determine, among other things, ancient vessel use(s), and ancient diet and subsistence practices.
The process includes cleaning, sampling and crushing a small fragment of the archaeological sherd before undertaking solvent-based lipid extraction. We use a combination of GC-FID, GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS to carry out the analyses, before providing users with a full interpretive report.
Depending on requirements, or the results obtained from our ORA service, further analyses may be commissioned, including analysis of other archaeological artefacts, identification of aquatic biomarkers or beeswax from residues, compound-specific dating of preserved fatty acids extracted from pots, and help with research and publication writing.
There is also now the opportunity for funded access to our organic residue analysis facilities and expertise through our new Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) RICHeS-funded Centre for Chemical Characterisation in Heritage Science at the University of Bristol.
Please see the RICHeS Access Fund webpage for more information on how to apply and contact us for further discussion.
Contacts
For further information, please contact bris-organicresidueanalysis@bristol.ac.uk.