A Method to Extract Collagen from Archaeological Leather for Species Identification with ZooMS

Summary

Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) is a rapid peptide fingerprinting technique capable of identifying species provenance in several archaeological materials of biological origin, and most commonly used on bone. Leather has proven resistant to analysis not only by ZooMS, but also to DNA extraction due to the tannins that are present in the material. We have used alkali (NaOH) to increase the solubility of the tannins and thereby extract them before enzyme digestion. This has allowed us to make several species identifications on samples of archaeological leather in varying different states of decay and mineralisation. The ability to identify leather opens up the possibility of a larger study exploring the production and use of a wide range of leather artefacts. Developing this method could provide advantages over visual examination of follicle patterns where these have been destroyed by the manufacturing process or degradation, and where even with good visual evidence two species are difficult to distinguish from one another (e.g., sheep and goat).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Proteins in Play: The Application of Ancient Proteins to the Study of Diet, Disease, Culture, and Evolution

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15374