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Structural characterization and decontamination of dental calculus for ancient starch research

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Abstract

Ancient dental calculus research currently relies on destructive techniques whereby archeological specimens are broken down to determine their contents. Two strategies that could partly remediate a permanent loss of the original sample and enhance future analysis and reproducibility include (1) structural surface characterization through spectroscopy along with crystallographic and spectroscopic analysis of its molecular structure, and (2) surface decontamination protocols in which the efficacy of cleaning dental calculus prior to extraction is demonstrated. Dental calculus provides ancient starch research a niche where granules may be adsorbed to minerals, coated, overgrown, entrapped, and/or protected from chemical degradation. While encapsulation offers protection from degradation, it does not shield the sample’s surface from contamination. The most common approach to retrieving microbotanical particles from archeological calculus has been the direct decalcification of the sample, after a cleaning stage variously consisting of immersion in water, acids, and mechanical dislodgment via gas, sonication, and/or toothbrushes. Little is known about the efficiency of these methods for a complete removal of sediment/soil and unrelated microbotanical matter. In this paper, controlled laboratory experimentation leads to chemical structural characterization and a decontamination protocol to eradicate starch granules. Several concentrations of acids, bases, and enzymes were tested at intervals to understand their potential to gelatinize and fully destroy starch granules; arriving at a procedure that effectively eradicates modern starch prior to dissolution without damaging the matrix or entrapped starch microremains. This is the first attempt at creating synthetic calculus to understand and systematically test effective decontamination protocols for ancient starch research.

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Funding

This work was sponsored by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council under its Partnership Grant Program no. 895-2016-1017. The Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre (SSSC) is acknowledged for providing facilities to conduct this research. Canada Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the University of Saskatchewan support research at the SSSC. The following Spanish institutions and grants made this work possible: MINECO/FEDER: CGL2015-65387-C03-1-P, Generalitat de Catalunya: 2017SGR1040 (URV: 2016PFR-URVB2-17). Junta de Castilla y León, and Fundación Atapuerca.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Archeology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    María Soto, Jamie Inwood, Siobhán Clarke, Julien Favreau, Makarius Itambu, Patrick Lee, Aloyce Mwambwiga, Robert Patalano & Julio Mercader

  2. School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Alison Crowther

  3. Department of Archeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Alison Crowther

  4. Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9, Canada

    Danielle Covelli, Jason Maley, Ramaswami Sammynaiken & Jianfeng Zhu

  5. Department of Archeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salam, PO Box 35050, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Makarius Itambu

  6. Petroleum Reservoir Group (PRG), Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Steve Larter

  7. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S2, Canada

    Patrick Lee

  8. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Zona Educacional 4 – Campus Sesceslades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Marina Lozano & Josep M Vergès

  9. National Natural History Museum, PO Box 2160, Arusha, Tanzania

    Aloyce Mwambwiga

  10. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Josep M Vergès

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  1. María Soto
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  2. Jamie Inwood
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Correspondence to Julio Mercader.

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Soto, M., Inwood, J., Clarke, S. et al. Structural characterization and decontamination of dental calculus for ancient starch research. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 4847–4872 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00830-7

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