Abstract
We applied a recently developed method of collagen peptide mass fingerprinting for taxonomic identification in faunal remains to 111 specimens from the Neolithic site of Domuztepe in southeastern Turkey. Advances on the published technique allow us to move beyond the key domesticated fauna (sheep, goat, pig and cattle) to include non-domesticates (deer and gazelle, as well as humans). As the animal economy of Domuztepe was dominated by domestic sheep and goats, a large number of the samples tested were morphologically indistinguishable sheep/goat remains. A number of samples represented elements that provide information on age (i.e., mandibles) or sex (pelvis); thus, this represents the first major study to attempt to improve kill-off profiles using collagen fingerprinting. We also show that the collagen extracted from dentine is equally amenable to the proposed methodology as bone collagen.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Malgosia Nowak-Kemp (Oxford Natural History Museum; samples 19437 and 19945) and Jerry Herman (Scotland Natural History Museum) for supplying modern specimens to sample and to Suellen Gauld for archaeological human and Josep Antoni Alcover for Myotragus samples. We would also like to acknowledge the Natural Environment Research Council for provision of a postdoctoral research grant NE/G000204/1 and a postdoctoral fellowship grant NE/H015132/1 for MB, the York Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry (University of York), and the Michael Barber Center for Mass Spectrometry (University of Manchester). We also thank Stuart Campbell for access to and discussions about the site, and both Matthew Collins and Jane Thomas-Oates for advice throughout.
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Buckley, M., Kansa, S.W. Collagen fingerprinting of archaeological bone and teeth remains from Domuztepe, South Eastern Turkey. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 3, 271–280 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-011-0066-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-011-0066-z