Methods to isolate and quantify damaged and gelatinized starch grains

Damaged and gelatinized starch grains recovered from artifacts and sediments have the potential to provide valuable information about past food processing behaviors. Because these particles have different physical properties from native undamaged starches, it is unclear if the methods used to recover them from archeological contexts are effective. Here we present tests of several laboratory methods for isolating starches, with the hope of identifying the best method for quantifying total starch numbers and recovering gelatinized starches. Our results indicate that no methods can provide total recovery of starch grains, and that most methods strongly under-represent gelatinized starches.