Book excerpt: Organic residues include a broad range of materials that can be analyzed at a macro-, micro- or molecular level. They represent the carbon-based remains (in combination with H, N, O, P and S) of fungi, plants, animals and humans. Organic residue analysis is a relatively new technique to archaeology. The chapters of this volume bring together scholars from across the globe and attest to the diverse range of analytical methods, material types, spatio-temporal cultural units and research questions to which organic residue analysis has been applied. They are partly the proceedings of a symposium on this subject, held on 31 March 2005 in Salt Lake City (Utah) during the 70th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, and partly the result of invitations to contribute forwarded to many active in this field.