Abstract

According to the leading American journal Science, ancient DNA has entered its 'golden age' and it is hard to argue that DNA has not led to a seismic shift in archaeological research.  

Meat. blood and milk; bone, tooth, antler, ivory and horn, leather and parchment, wool, and silk: proteins did and do continue to play a key role in our economy.   Yet it is hard to argue with Robert Service that compared to an ancient DNA earthquake, ancient proteins have been a far distant tremor.

Much like ancient DNA, the technology has struggled to catch up with the challenge of analysing degraded and modified biomolecules.  In the case of DNA the golden age was made possible by the move from targeted amplification, to shotgun sequencing of all fragments, which overcame the problem of bias towards modern molecules. In the case of proteins too, a switch from a top down analysis (which separated and analysed intact proteins), to a bottom up approach (which identifies and build proteins from constituent fragments), has revolutionised our ability to recover information from ancient, degraded samples.  In my presentation I will explore the history of the study of proteins in archaeology, and - in the light of technologies compatible with archaeological samples - consider how the future may be shaped.