Archaeology PhD student wins a Future Fellows prize at the International Society for Biomolecular Archaeology conference

The prize is awarded to a PhD student and postdoc for the best oral presentation of the conference. His presentation ‘Recovering proteins from foodcrust: Biased from the start’ shared results from his vital experimental work using ancient proteins for identifying the food contents of ceramic vessels.

The International Society for Biomolecular Archaeology brings together a diverse group of researchers applying biomolecular analysis for understanding past human societies, human environment and past environments. Other staff and students from the Department of Archaeology also presented new and emerging research on ancient DNA, organic residue analysis and palaeoproteomics, involved in over 30 of the conferences’ talks and posters.

Talks and posters presented

Investigating the adoption of rice and millet by hunter-gatherer-fishers of central Japan using organic residue analysis

• Speaker: Jasmine Lundy
• Co-authors: Manon Bondetti, Alexandre Lucquin, Helen M. Talbot, Natsuki Murakami, Eiko Endo, Seiji Nakayama, Motoki Harada, Miho Suzuki, Simon Carrignon, Enrico R. Crema, Oliver E. Craig, Shinya Shoda

Regional differences in stone cooking in the Japanese Palaeolithic as revealed by lipid residues

• Speaker: Shinya Shoda
• Co-authors: Natsuki Murakami, Yasuo Hosaka, Helen M. Talbot, Alexandre Lucquin, Oliver E. Craig

Recovering proteins from foodcrust, biased from the start

• Speaker: Joannes Dekker
• Co-authors: Matthew Collins, Jessica Hendy

Proteomic Insights to Foodways among the Moche of North Coastal Peru

• Speaker: Lindsey Paskulin
• Co-authors: Aleksa Alaica, Lindi Masur, Edward Swenson, Virginia Harvey, Jessica Hendy, Karine Taché, Mathieu Leclerc, Camilla Speller

Biomolecular archaeology meets ocean conservation in biodiversity hotspots

• Speaker: Andre Carlo Colonese
• Co-authors: Thiago Fossile, Krista Michelle McGrath, Dannieli Firme Herbst, Leopoldo Cavaleri Gerhardinger, Marjolein Admiraal, Oliver E Craig

The potential of Sequential Thermal Desorption/Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry in the analysis of human dental calculus: a case study from the Bronze Age Aegean

• Speaker: Cynthianne Spiteri
• Co-authors: Stephen Buckley, Robert C. Power, Stefanie Eisenmann, Joann Fletcher, Birgitta Hallager, Joseph Maran, Maria Andreadaki‐Vlazaki, Photini J. P. McGeorge, Michael Schultz, Philipp W. Stockhammer

Ancient chicken remains reveal the origins of virulence in Marek’s disease virus

• Speaker: Aurélie Manin
• Co-authors: Steven R. Fiddaman, Evangelos A Dimopoulos, Ophélie Lebrasseur, Louis du Plessis, Bram Vrancken, Sophy Charlton, Ashleigh F. Haruda, Kristina Tabbada, Patrik G. Flammer, Stefan Dascalu, Nemanja Marković, Hannah Li, Gabriella Franklin, Robert Symmons, Henriette Baron, László Daróczi-Szabó, Dilyara N. Shaymuratova, Igor V. Askeyev, Olivier Putelat, Maria Sana, Hossein Davoudi, Homa Fathi, Amir Saed Mucheshi, Ali Akbar Vahdati, Alison Foster, Naomi Sykes, Gabrielle Cass Baumberg, Jelena Bulatović, Arthur O. Askeyev, Oleg V. Askeyev, Marjan Mashkour, Oliver G. Pybus, Venugopal Nair, Adrian L Smith, Greger Larson, Laurent A. F. Frantz

Ancient DNA and kinship analysis at the Iron Age cemetery of Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire, UK

• Speaker: Ian Armit
• Co-authors: Lindsey Büster, Claire-Elise Fischer, Iñigo Olalde, Tom Booth, David Reich

Investigation of protein degradation using LC-MS/MS, MALDI-MS, and Amino Acid Racemization: A case study with Beta-lactoglobulin

• Speaker: Bharath Anila Bhuvanendran Nair
• Co-authors: Meaghan Mackie, Tina Ravnsborg, Samantha Presslee, Alberto Taurozzi, Kirsty Penkman, Jesper V. Olsen, Ole Nørregaard Jensen, Carsten Wiuf, Matthew Collins

Community signatures of past human lifestyles are preserved within faecal concretions

• Speaker: Eleanor Green
• Co-authors: Sam Presslee, Jessica Hendy, Helen Whelton, Lara González Carretero, Camilla Speller, Nathan Wales

Using ancient biomolecules to reveal the social structure and behaviours of the Upper Palaeolithic Magdalenian at Gough’s Cave, UK

• Speaker: William Marsh
• Co-authors: Selina Brace, Silvia Bello1 Ian Barnes, Oliver Craig

Northeast North American archaeology, lipid analysis, Late Woodland pottery, Iroquoian foodways

• Speaker: Karine Taché
• Co-authors: Roland Tremblay, Alexandre Lucquin, Marjolein Admiraal, John P. Hart, Oliver E. Craig

Farmers hunt: multi-proxy analysis reveals complex subsistence systems at the dawn of early farming in the NE Baltic

• Speaker: Ester Oras
• Co-authors: Mari Tõrv, Kristiina Johanson, Eve Rannamäe, Anneli Poska, Liivi Varul, Alexandre Lucquin, Jasmine Lundy, Vanda Visocka, Dardega Legzdina, Gunita Zariņa, Lembi Lõugas, Samantha Brown, Lucy Cramp, Volker Heyd, Michaela Reay, Łukasz Pospieszny, Harry K. Robson, Kerkko Nordqvist, Carl Heron, Aivar Kriiska, Oliver E. Craig

A comparative study of commercially available minimally invasive sampling protocols on Early Neolithic humeri analysed via palaeoproteomics

• Speaker: Jakob Hansen
• Co-authors: Joannes Dekker, Maria Saña Sequí, Frido Welker

Tracking the role of marine resources to food security and livelihoods in postcolonial southern Brazil through chemical analysis of pottery

• Speaker: Alice Di Muro
• Co-authors: Oliver Craig, André Carlo Colonese

Palaeoproteomic evidence reveals dairying supported prehistoric occupation of the highland Tibetan Plateau

• Speaker: Li Tang
• Co-authors: Shevan Wilkin, Kristine Korzow Richter, Ashley Scott, Madeleine Bleasdale, Ricardo Fernandes, Patrick Roberts, Robert Spengler, Yuanhong He, Shuai Li, Feng Yang, Haibing Yuan, Hongliang Lu, Michael Petraglia, Fallen K.Y . Teoh, Yan Tong, Tinlei Tsering, Yang Tsho, Zujun Chen, Wei He, Shargan Wangdue, Lin Xi, Nicole Boivin

The function of the early Patagonian hunter-gatherer pottery (Argentina) explored through organic residue analysis

• Speaker: Alejandro Serna
• Co-authors: Alexandre Lucquin, Marjolein Admiraal, Javier A. Montalvo-Cabrera, Luciano Prates, Daniela Saghessi, André C. Colonese, Paola Ponce, Gustavo Martínez, Erika Borges Vaz, Florencia Borella, Cristina Bellelli, Verónica Aldazábal, Alberto E. Pérez, Julieta Gómez Otero, Emiliano Mange, Lucio González Venanzi, Victoria Romano, Federico L. Scartascini, Marcelo Vitores, Miguel Á. Zubimendi, Laura Miotti, Oliver E. Craig

Genomic analysis of ancient emmer wheat sheds light into the evolution of the first domestics

• Speaker: Laura Botigué
• Co-authors: Ferran Antolín, Alice Iob, Nathan Wales

Prehistoric Borrelia genomes provide insights into the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever

• Speaker: Pooja Swali
• Co-authors: Thomas Booth, Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Chris Barrington, Matteo Borrini, Jo Buckberry, Rea Carlin, Alexandre Gilardet, Isabelle Glocke, Joel Irish, Monica Kelly, Megan King, Fiona Petchey, Frankie Tait, Satu Valoriani, Mia Williams, Kevin Cootes, Ian Armit, Pontus Skoglund

Disparate demographic impacts of the Roman and Visigothic presence in the Iberian Peninsula

• Speaker: Pablo Carrion
• Co-authors: Iñigo Olalde, Pablo García-Borja, Miguel-Angel Cuadrado, Maria-Luisa Cerdeño, Juan-Antonio Quirós, Virginia García Entero, Jordi Morera, Josep-F. Roig-Pérez, Moisés Díaz García, Neus Coromina, Josep Burch, David Vivó, Jordi Vivo, Jordi Sagrera, Juan-Ignacio Morales, Josep María Vergès, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Juan-Manuel Jiménez-Arenas, Macarena Bustamante-Álvarez, Celia Chaves, Maite-Iris Garcia-Collado, Javier Heras, Sergio Vidal, Beatriz Campdera, Carles Lalueza-Fox, David Reich

Genetic discontinuity in a Medieval Sicilian community

• Speaker: Aurore Monnereau
• Co-authors: Alice Ughi, Paola Orecchoni, Richard Hagan, Efthymia Nikita, Derek Hamilton, Alessandra Molinari, Martin Carver, Oliver Craig, Camilla Speller, Michelle Alexander, Nathan Wales

Genome-wide analysis of a collective grave from Mentesh Tepe provides insight into the population structure of early neolithic population in the South Caucasus

• Speaker: Perle Guarino-Vignon
• Co-authors: Maël Lefeuvre, Amélie Chimènes, Aurore Monnereau, Farhad Guliyev, Laure Pecqueur, Bertille Lyonnet, Céline Bon

Amelogenin sex determination: Developing mass spectrometric methods for rapid enamel-based palaeoproteomic sexing

• Speaker: Charllotte Blacka
• Co-authors: Kirsty Penkman, Jessica Hendy, Jackie Mosely

Proteomic characterisation of the impact of cooking and burial on experimental food crusts and ceramics

• Speaker: Miranda Evans
• Co-authors: Manon Bondetti, Jasmine Lundy, Richard Hagan, Łukasz Kowalski, Jarosław Wilczyńki, Penny Bickle, Kamil Adamczak, Oliver E. Craig, Harry K. Robson, Matthew Collins, Jessica Hendy

Assessment of intra-crystalline enamel amino acid and proteins to understand enamel closed system model

• Speaker: Fazeelah Munir
• Co-authors: Adam Dowle, Marc Dickinson, Samantha Presslee, Jane Thomas-Oates, Kirsty Penkman

Non-destructive screening of protein preservation in ancient bone

• Speaker: Helen Fewlass
• Co-authors: Sam Presslee, Dorothea Mylopotamitaki, Claudio Berto, Malgorzata Kot, Marta Arzarello, Silviu Constantin, Alex Petculescu, Marius Robu, Ionut Cornel Mirea, Edouard Masson-Maclean, Kate Britton, William Sellers, Zeljko Rezek, Geoff M. Smith, Tsenka Tsanova, Nikolay Sirakov, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Helen R. Flynn, J. Mark Skehel, Frido Welker, Kirsty Penkman, Pontus Skoglund

Increasing the sensitivity of cereal detection in pottery using LC-Q-Orbitrap MS

• Speaker: Jonica Ella Doliente
• Co-authors: Swen Langer, Alexandre Lucquin, Miriam Cubas, Andre Colonese, Oliver Craig, Kirsty Penkman

A systematic review of database research engines using a controlled, degraded single protein

• Speaker: Matthew Collins
• Co-authors: Yun Chiang, Bharath Nair, Ismael Ismael Rodriguez Palomo, Benjamin Dartigues, Miranda Evans, Ruairidh Macleod, Jan Dekker

Biomolecular perspectives on the uses of birch bark tar in prehistoric Europe

• Speaker: Anna White
• Co-authors: Tabea Koch, Theis Jensen, Jonas Niemann, Renate Ebersbach, Christian Harb, Renata Huber, Léonard Kramer, Michel Mauvilly, Aimee Little, Martine Regert, Nathan Wales, Hannes Schroeder

Ancient protein analysis of a Roman sealed jar: an intriguing palaeoproteomic case study

• Speaker: Jessica Hendy
• Co-authors: Miranda Evans, Samantha Presslee, Birgit Schwahn, Peter Fasold, Carsten Wenzel

An experimental approach: Exploring DNA preservation on archaeological ground stones

• Speaker: Alice Cao
• Co-authors: Nathan Wales, Aimee Little, Tobias Richter, Mark Edmonds

Proteomic analyses applied to consolidated prehistoric wooden artifacts: how to overcome perturbations by polyethylene glycol and acrylic resin?

• Speaker: Ingrid Bertin
• Co-authors: Deborah Roversi, Krista McGrath, Isabelle Théry-Parisot, André Carlo Colones, Kirsty Penkman