Organic geochemical evidence for the origin of ancient anthropogenic soil deposits at Tofts Ness, Sanday, Orkney

Lipid biomarker components of soils constituting three Orcadian archaeologi cal fossil soil profiles were analysed. The combined assessment of lipid di stributional and compound specific stable carbon isotope data enabled the i dentification of grass turves as the most probable material used in the for mation of the anthropogenic soil deposits. Appraisal of 5 beta-stanol compo nents indicated a faecal input to one of the soils which, on considering di stributional evidence, was ascribed a human/porcine origin. Additional stud y of polar bile acids from this profile revealed a distribution exhibiting a predominance of deoxycholic acid indicating the primary faecal input to b e mainly derived from humans although the minor occurrence of hyodeoxycholi c acid, a characteristic component of pig faeces, attested to a limited por cine input. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.