Pilot study on the lipid residues in the clay core of Lost-wax process

•A series of simulation experiments were carried out in order to investigate the absorption behavior and chemical changes of beeswax during a casting process.•This preliminary experimental work indicates some potential of the proposed method in exploring an effective way of identifying the use of lost-wax casting via analyzing organic residues that ceramic cores may have absorbed and retained under certain circumstances, which then can be used as the indictor of the lost-wax process. The debate on whether lost-wax casting was used to make some exquisite bronze vessels during the Eastern Zhou period (8th-3rd centuries BCE) raises an important issue, that is how to identify the use of lost-wax casting in the archaeological record. This paper proposes a method based on the analysis of lipid residue in clay molds, assuming that the use of lost-wax casting technique might have left some lipid residue in clay materials involved. A series of simulation experiments were carried out in order to investigate the absorption behavior and chemical changes of beeswax during a casting process. The results show that a considerable amount of wax was absorbed by the clay core and underwent various chemical changes under the high temperature condition during the heating and pouring processes. It has been revealed that characteristic biomarkers of beeswax such as 14- and 15-hydroxypalmitic acids can sustain a low temperature heating (