There is a new way to date pottery! Researchers at the University of Bristol have created a way to determine when pottery was made and used. This is an improvement over dating the typology of pottery, or dating the other items found near the pottery. Especially since pottery is one of the most common artifacts found in archaeology.
The new method utilizes fatty acids from food residues on the pottery, and has already been tested on a range of Neolithic sites, where it was found to be as accurate as radiocarbon testing bones, seeds, and wood from the sites.
