The authors report an unusual denture, fashioned from elephant ivory and designed for someone who... more The authors report an unusual denture, fashioned from elephant ivory and designed for someone who had probably lost their teeth. It was found in a latrine pit together with pottery and tobacco pipes, indicating that it had belonged to a wealthy tea-drinker of the early eighteenth century.
Ivory is a generic term applied to the larger teeth and tusks of terrestrial and marine mammals s... more Ivory is a generic term applied to the larger teeth and tusks of terrestrial and marine mammals such as the African elephant (both the savannah elephant Loxodonta africana and the forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), mammoth (Mammuthus sp.), hippopotamus (Hippopotam...
Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long... more Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long. Particularly, the human brain rapidly dissolves after death due to auto-proteolysis and putrefaction.The here presented discovery of 2600-year-old brain proteins from a radiocarbon dated human brain provides new evidence for extra-ordinary long-term stability of non-amyloid protein aggregates.Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the preservation of neurocytoarchitecture in the ancient brain, which appeared shrunken and compact compared to a modern brain. Resolution of intermediate filaments (IFs) from protein aggregates took 2–12 months. Immunoassays on micro-dissected brain tissue homogenates revealed the preservation of the known protein topography for grey and white matter for type III (glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) and IV (neurofilaments, Nfs) IF. Mass spectrometry data could be matched to a number of peptide sequences, notably for GFAP and Nf. Preserved immunogenicity of t...
STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, 2020
Brain tissue is ubiquitous in the archaeological record. Multiple, independent studies report the... more Brain tissue is ubiquitous in the archaeological record. Multiple, independent studies report the finding of black, resinous or shiny brain tissue, and Petrone et al. [2020 “Heat-induced Brain Vitrification from the Vesuvius Eruption in C.E. 79.” N Engl J Med. 382: 383–384; doi:10.1056/NEJMc1909867] raise the intriguing prospect of a role for vitrification in the preservation of ancient biomolecules. However, Petrone et al. (2020) have not made their raw data available, and no detailed laboratory or analytical methodology is offered. Issues of contamination and misinterpretation hampered a decade of research in biomolecular archaeology, such that addressing these sources of bias and facilitating validation of specious findings has become both routine and of paramount importance in the discipline. We argue that the evidence they present does not support their conclusion of heat-induced vitrification of human brain tissue, and that future studies should share palaeoproteomic data in a...
In July 1834 excavation of a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, recovered an inta... more In July 1834 excavation of a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, recovered an intact, waterlogged, hollowed-out oak coffin containing a perfectly preserved Bronze Age skeleton that had been wrapped in an animal skin and buried with worked flints, a bronze dagger with a whalebone pommel, and a bark vessel apparently containing food residue. Gristhorpe Man became the centrepiece of the Scarborough Philosophical Society’s museum display. In 2004, planned refurbishment of the renamed Rotunda Museum provided the opportunity for a scientific re-examination of the burial and grave goods in order to eluciate the life and death of this extraordinary survival of the British Early Bronze Age. Tree-trunk coffin burials are relatively rare and Gristhorpe Man, with his range of grave goods was likely to have held a special role in society. Analysis of the skeleton included an examination of its skeletal morphology and palaeopathological conditions combined with isotopic analyses of...
X-radiography is an established non-destructive analytical technique which is not usually applied... more X-radiography is an established non-destructive analytical technique which is not usually applied to the investigation of textiles. This paper presents initial results of a five year project. This innovative and collaborative research between the Universities of Southampton and Bradford is being carried out under the auspices of the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. The potential of X-radiography as a tool for the characterisation, condition assessment and study of archaeological and ethnographic textiles is presented. Specific techniques, which have been applied to the x-radiography of textiles, are outlined, including low kV imaging with appropriate filtration. Brief reference is made to the benefits of image digitisation and digital image processing of the resulting X-radiographs. As a result of collaborations with a number of U.K. museums and collections, a series of case studies of archeological, ethnographic...
Preface Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefevre and Marylene Patou-Mathis Introduction to the volume ... more Preface Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefevre and Marylene Patou-Mathis Introduction to the volume Alice Choyke and Sonia O'Connor Keynote Paper 1. Hidden Agendas: Ancient Raw Material Choice for Worked Osseous Objects in Central Europe and Beyond Alice Choyke Raw Material Selection and Curation within Tool Types 2. Osseous Retouchers from the Final Mousterian and Uluzzian Levels at the Fumane Cave (Verona, Italy): Preliminary Results Camille Jequier, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani 3. Raw Material Used in the Manufacture of Osseous Artefacts during the Upper Palaeolithic in Portugal Marina AlmeidaEvora 4. The Identification of Perishable Technologies through Usewear on Osseous Tools: Wear Patterns on Historic and Contemporary Tools as a Standard for Identifying Raw Materials Worked in the Late Upper Palaeolithic Elisabeth A. Stone 5. Bone Material and Design Choices in Southern Patagonia Vivian Scheinsohn 6. Changed into Tools. Camelid Bones from the Southern CalchaquiValleys (F...
The detection of universal patterning in the way animals were utilised for artefact production is... more The detection of universal patterning in the way animals were utilised for artefact production is relianton the correct and confident identification of the raw materials. Associations between classes of artefactsand very specific materials can make a significant contribution to understanding the thinking behind thatparticular class of object. Unfortunately expectations based on assumptions of a likely suite of materials canbe wrong. This paper discusses the outcomes of a three year project; Cultural Objects Worked in SkeletalHard Tissues (COWISHT), aimed at developing, evaluating and validating identification criteria andtechniques for often very highly worked and decayed materials. This project included the identification ofbone, antler, ivory, horn, baleen, tortoiseshell and rhino horn. This paper also presents an introduction to theidentification web resource, Visualising Animal Hard Tissues, which has been designed to disseminate theresults of COWISHT. This resource uses cutting...
This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Ar... more This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Archbishop John Morton (c 1420−1500) to generate new insights into the material culture of the Roman Catholic faith before, during and after the penal period in England (c 1558−1829). This composite textile was initially thought to be made up of fragments of a late 1400s cope bearing Morton’s rebus, reconfigured as an altar frontal, which had survived in the house of an important Roman Catholic family. The embroidered motifs include a unique Lily Crucifix. The textile’s complex biography is ‘unpicked’ using physical and textual evidence to understand its changing forms, roles and significance. Analysis of the material and construction, combined with evidence gained through X-radiography, showed the frontal to be composed of parts of a cope and at least one other vestment, with a now missing image of the Annunciation. Mapping the stages of fragmentation, removal and re-modelling demonstrate...
Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long... more Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long periods. Particularly, the human brain rapidly dissolves after death due to auto-proteolysis and putrefaction. The here presented discovery of 2600-year-old brain proteins from a radiocarbon dated human brain provides new evidence for extraordinary long-term stability of non-amyloid protein aggregates. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the preservation of neurocytoarchitecture in the ancient brain, which appeared shrunken and compact compared to a modern brain. Resolution of intermediate filaments (IFs) from protein aggregates took 2–12 months. Immunoassays on micro-dissected brain tissue homogenates revealed the preservation of the known protein topography for grey and white matter for type III (glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) and IV (neurofilaments, Nfs) IFs. Mass spectrometry data could be matched to a number of peptide sequences, notably for GFAP and Nfs. Preserved immunoge...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2016
The identification of biomass within the cranial cavity of a waterlogged human skeleton inside a ... more The identification of biomass within the cranial cavity of a waterlogged human skeleton inside a fish-tailed wooden coffin from a nineteenth century burial has been confirmed as brain tissue. A comparison is made between the Raman spectra obtained in the current study with those from an Iron Age brain found in an isolated cranium dating from about 500 years BCE, the only other Raman spectroscopy study made of human brain recovered from waterlogged, archaeological excavations. The spectra give some surprisingly detailed information about the state of preservation of brain tissue in both burials, especially when it is realized that, unlike preserved bog bodies, no other soft tissue has survived. The biosignatures of proteinaceous brain material are well characterized. The presence of spectral signatures from extraneous cyanobacterial colonization in the depositional site of the Iron Age brain had been construed to be responsible in part for the unusual preservation of brain tissues in...
Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global ... more Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected-rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.
The authors report an unusual denture, fashioned from elephant ivory and designed for someone who... more The authors report an unusual denture, fashioned from elephant ivory and designed for someone who had probably lost their teeth. It was found in a latrine pit together with pottery and tobacco pipes, indicating that it had belonged to a wealthy tea-drinker of the early eighteenth century.
Ivory is a generic term applied to the larger teeth and tusks of terrestrial and marine mammals s... more Ivory is a generic term applied to the larger teeth and tusks of terrestrial and marine mammals such as the African elephant (both the savannah elephant Loxodonta africana and the forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), mammoth (Mammuthus sp.), hippopotamus (Hippopotam...
Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long... more Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long. Particularly, the human brain rapidly dissolves after death due to auto-proteolysis and putrefaction.The here presented discovery of 2600-year-old brain proteins from a radiocarbon dated human brain provides new evidence for extra-ordinary long-term stability of non-amyloid protein aggregates.Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the preservation of neurocytoarchitecture in the ancient brain, which appeared shrunken and compact compared to a modern brain. Resolution of intermediate filaments (IFs) from protein aggregates took 2–12 months. Immunoassays on micro-dissected brain tissue homogenates revealed the preservation of the known protein topography for grey and white matter for type III (glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) and IV (neurofilaments, Nfs) IF. Mass spectrometry data could be matched to a number of peptide sequences, notably for GFAP and Nf. Preserved immunogenicity of t...
STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, 2020
Brain tissue is ubiquitous in the archaeological record. Multiple, independent studies report the... more Brain tissue is ubiquitous in the archaeological record. Multiple, independent studies report the finding of black, resinous or shiny brain tissue, and Petrone et al. [2020 “Heat-induced Brain Vitrification from the Vesuvius Eruption in C.E. 79.” N Engl J Med. 382: 383–384; doi:10.1056/NEJMc1909867] raise the intriguing prospect of a role for vitrification in the preservation of ancient biomolecules. However, Petrone et al. (2020) have not made their raw data available, and no detailed laboratory or analytical methodology is offered. Issues of contamination and misinterpretation hampered a decade of research in biomolecular archaeology, such that addressing these sources of bias and facilitating validation of specious findings has become both routine and of paramount importance in the discipline. We argue that the evidence they present does not support their conclusion of heat-induced vitrification of human brain tissue, and that future studies should share palaeoproteomic data in a...
In July 1834 excavation of a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, recovered an inta... more In July 1834 excavation of a barrow at Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, recovered an intact, waterlogged, hollowed-out oak coffin containing a perfectly preserved Bronze Age skeleton that had been wrapped in an animal skin and buried with worked flints, a bronze dagger with a whalebone pommel, and a bark vessel apparently containing food residue. Gristhorpe Man became the centrepiece of the Scarborough Philosophical Society’s museum display. In 2004, planned refurbishment of the renamed Rotunda Museum provided the opportunity for a scientific re-examination of the burial and grave goods in order to eluciate the life and death of this extraordinary survival of the British Early Bronze Age. Tree-trunk coffin burials are relatively rare and Gristhorpe Man, with his range of grave goods was likely to have held a special role in society. Analysis of the skeleton included an examination of its skeletal morphology and palaeopathological conditions combined with isotopic analyses of...
X-radiography is an established non-destructive analytical technique which is not usually applied... more X-radiography is an established non-destructive analytical technique which is not usually applied to the investigation of textiles. This paper presents initial results of a five year project. This innovative and collaborative research between the Universities of Southampton and Bradford is being carried out under the auspices of the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. The potential of X-radiography as a tool for the characterisation, condition assessment and study of archaeological and ethnographic textiles is presented. Specific techniques, which have been applied to the x-radiography of textiles, are outlined, including low kV imaging with appropriate filtration. Brief reference is made to the benefits of image digitisation and digital image processing of the resulting X-radiographs. As a result of collaborations with a number of U.K. museums and collections, a series of case studies of archeological, ethnographic...
Preface Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefevre and Marylene Patou-Mathis Introduction to the volume ... more Preface Jean-Denis Vigne, Christine Lefevre and Marylene Patou-Mathis Introduction to the volume Alice Choyke and Sonia O'Connor Keynote Paper 1. Hidden Agendas: Ancient Raw Material Choice for Worked Osseous Objects in Central Europe and Beyond Alice Choyke Raw Material Selection and Curation within Tool Types 2. Osseous Retouchers from the Final Mousterian and Uluzzian Levels at the Fumane Cave (Verona, Italy): Preliminary Results Camille Jequier, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani 3. Raw Material Used in the Manufacture of Osseous Artefacts during the Upper Palaeolithic in Portugal Marina AlmeidaEvora 4. The Identification of Perishable Technologies through Usewear on Osseous Tools: Wear Patterns on Historic and Contemporary Tools as a Standard for Identifying Raw Materials Worked in the Late Upper Palaeolithic Elisabeth A. Stone 5. Bone Material and Design Choices in Southern Patagonia Vivian Scheinsohn 6. Changed into Tools. Camelid Bones from the Southern CalchaquiValleys (F...
The detection of universal patterning in the way animals were utilised for artefact production is... more The detection of universal patterning in the way animals were utilised for artefact production is relianton the correct and confident identification of the raw materials. Associations between classes of artefactsand very specific materials can make a significant contribution to understanding the thinking behind thatparticular class of object. Unfortunately expectations based on assumptions of a likely suite of materials canbe wrong. This paper discusses the outcomes of a three year project; Cultural Objects Worked in SkeletalHard Tissues (COWISHT), aimed at developing, evaluating and validating identification criteria andtechniques for often very highly worked and decayed materials. This project included the identification ofbone, antler, ivory, horn, baleen, tortoiseshell and rhino horn. This paper also presents an introduction to theidentification web resource, Visualising Animal Hard Tissues, which has been designed to disseminate theresults of COWISHT. This resource uses cutting...
This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Ar... more This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Archbishop John Morton (c 1420−1500) to generate new insights into the material culture of the Roman Catholic faith before, during and after the penal period in England (c 1558−1829). This composite textile was initially thought to be made up of fragments of a late 1400s cope bearing Morton’s rebus, reconfigured as an altar frontal, which had survived in the house of an important Roman Catholic family. The embroidered motifs include a unique Lily Crucifix. The textile’s complex biography is ‘unpicked’ using physical and textual evidence to understand its changing forms, roles and significance. Analysis of the material and construction, combined with evidence gained through X-radiography, showed the frontal to be composed of parts of a cope and at least one other vestment, with a now missing image of the Annunciation. Mapping the stages of fragmentation, removal and re-modelling demonstrate...
Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long... more Human proteins have not been reported to survive in free nature, at ambient temperature, for long periods. Particularly, the human brain rapidly dissolves after death due to auto-proteolysis and putrefaction. The here presented discovery of 2600-year-old brain proteins from a radiocarbon dated human brain provides new evidence for extraordinary long-term stability of non-amyloid protein aggregates. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the preservation of neurocytoarchitecture in the ancient brain, which appeared shrunken and compact compared to a modern brain. Resolution of intermediate filaments (IFs) from protein aggregates took 2–12 months. Immunoassays on micro-dissected brain tissue homogenates revealed the preservation of the known protein topography for grey and white matter for type III (glial fibrillary acidic protein, GFAP) and IV (neurofilaments, Nfs) IFs. Mass spectrometry data could be matched to a number of peptide sequences, notably for GFAP and Nfs. Preserved immunoge...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2016
The identification of biomass within the cranial cavity of a waterlogged human skeleton inside a ... more The identification of biomass within the cranial cavity of a waterlogged human skeleton inside a fish-tailed wooden coffin from a nineteenth century burial has been confirmed as brain tissue. A comparison is made between the Raman spectra obtained in the current study with those from an Iron Age brain found in an isolated cranium dating from about 500 years BCE, the only other Raman spectroscopy study made of human brain recovered from waterlogged, archaeological excavations. The spectra give some surprisingly detailed information about the state of preservation of brain tissue in both burials, especially when it is realized that, unlike preserved bog bodies, no other soft tissue has survived. The biosignatures of proteinaceous brain material are well characterized. The presence of spectral signatures from extraneous cyanobacterial colonization in the depositional site of the Iron Age brain had been construed to be responsible in part for the unusual preservation of brain tissues in...
Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global ... more Shamanic belief systems represent the first form of religious practice visible within the global archaeological record. Here we report on the earliest known evidence of shamanic costume: modified red deer crania headdresses from the Early Holocene site of Star Carr (c. 11 kya). More than 90% of the examples from prehistoric Europe come from this one site, establishing it as a place of outstanding shamanistic/cosmological significance. Our work, involving a programme of experimental replication, analysis of macroscopic traces, organic residue analysis and 3D image acquisition, metrology and visualisation, represents the first attempt to understand the manufacturing processes used to create these artefacts. The results produced were unexpected-rather than being carefully crafted objects, elements of their production can only be described as expedient.
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