New Advances in Biomolecular Approaches to Archaeological Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your scientific contribution to this Special Issue entitled: “New Advances in Biomolecular Approaches to Archaeological Heritage”.

Identifying ancient residues preserved on archaeological objects or in biological tissues such as mineralized dental plaque or coprolites enables the accurate reconstruction of past populations and their lifeways. Daily activities, technological behaviors, dietary habits, and food preparation practices can be thoroughly reconstructed thanks to the fragmentary remains of organic and inorganic substances recovered in archaeological contexts. In addition, residues on historical objects, such as parchments, artworks, and manuscripts, provide many insights into the operational sequences (Fr. chaînes opératoires) that were used in the production of these objects.

In the past, the documentation and identification of residues on ancient and historical objects posed numerous methodological challenges. In the past, organic substances that came into contact with tools (e.g., lithics, bones, ceramics, metals, shells) generally suffered from preservation biases and taphonomic changes. As a result, visual characters (e.g., color, morphology) are not always the best parameters to base residue identifications. The use of chemical analyses is, therefore, essential to achieve solid interpretations of ancient residues and, thus, reconstruct ancient lifeways, diets, and methods of object manufacturing. The identification of ancient biomolecules or metabolites using spectrometric, chromatographic, or proteomic methods significantly improves the accurate identification of ancient residues by providing unambiguous matches to specific compounds.

The Special Issue aims to collect original research articles and reviews that deal with organic residue analysis (ORA) in archaeological and historical heritage and involve using one or more chemical analyses applied to archaeology, forensic anthropology, biology, and other fields.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Antonella Pedergnana
Dr. Dries Cnuts
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• organic residue analysis (ORA)
• ancient biomolecules
• chemical analysis
• ancient lifeways
• archaeological and historical heritage