The identification of archaeological eggshell using peptide markers

Samantha Louise Presslee; Julie Carol Wilson; Matthew James Collins; Beatrice Demarchi

doi:10.1080/20548923.2018.1424300

The identification of archaeological eggshell using peptide markers

Samantha Louise Presslee, Julie Carol Wilson, Matthew James Collins, Beatrice Demarchi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Avian eggshell survives well in alkaline and neutral soils, but its potential as an archaeological resource remains largely unexplored, largely due to difficulties in its identification. Here we exploit the release of novel bird genomes and, for the first time on eggshell, use MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry in combination with peptide sequencing by LC-MS/MS. The eggshell proteome is revealed as unexpectedly complex, with 5755 proteins identified for a reference collection comprising 23 bird species. We determined 782 m/z markers useful for eggshell identification, 583 of which could be assigned to known eggshell peptide sequences. These were used to identify eggshell fragments recovered from a medieval site at Freeschool Lane, Leicester. We discuss the specificity of the peptide markers and highlight the importance of assessing the level of taxonomic identification achievable for archaeological interpretation.

Original language	English
Article number	4:1
Pages (from-to)	13-23
Number of pages	10
Journal	STAR: Science Technology of Archaeological Research
Volume	4
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2018.1424300
Publication status	Published - 23 Feb 2018

Bibliographical note

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10.1080/20548923.2018.1424300

Presslee et al_Manuscript
© 2018 The Author(s)
Accepted author manuscript, 334 KB
The identification of archaeological eggshell using peptide markers
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Final published version, 3.31 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "The identification of archaeological eggshell using peptide markers",

abstract = "Avian eggshell survives well in alkaline and neutral soils, but its potential as an archaeological resource remains largely unexplored, largely due to difficulties in its identification. Here we exploit the release of novel bird genomes and, for the first time on eggshell, use MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry in combination with peptide sequencing by LC-MS/MS. The eggshell proteome is revealed as unexpectedly complex, with 5755 proteins identified for a reference collection comprising 23 bird species. We determined 782 m/z markers useful for eggshell identification, 583 of which could be assigned to known eggshell peptide sequences. These were used to identify eggshell fragments recovered from a medieval site at Freeschool Lane, Leicester. We discuss the specificity of the peptide markers and highlight the importance of assessing the level of taxonomic identification achievable for archaeological interpretation.",

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