TY - GEN

T1 - Recovering bone and tooth proteins in arid environments using palaeoproteomics -A case study from the Late Stone Age site of Toteng, Botswana Recovering bone and tooth proteins in arid environments using palaeoproteomics

AU - Le Meillour, Louise

AU - Zirah, Séverine

AU - Lesur, Joséphine

AU - Lebon, Matthieu

AU - Pleurdeau, David

AU - Zazzo, Antoine

PY - 2019/2/14

Y1 - 2019/2/14

N2 - A case study in the Late Stone Age site of Toteng, Botswana In Africa, the absence of wild ancestors' remains of domestic caprines indicates an exogenous origin of domestic sheep and goat. Archaeological evidences suggest that they were introduced in the Northern part of the continent by the 7 th millenium BCE, but only arrived in the Southern part by the 2 nd century BCE. Moreover, the morphological similarities existing between the two species among them, and with other small wild bovids like antelopes combined with the large amount of highly fragmented remains due to arid environnemental conditions have substantially limited the use of classical comparative anatomy analyses. We report here the use of a promising method, palaeoproteomics, on degraded bone and tooth splinters from the Late Stone Age site of Toteng, Botswana. This study is among the first to focuse on African archaeological remains, strongly degraded by arid burying conditions and diagenesis. The purpose of our work is to both document the presence of domestic caprines at this site, but also to develop a new methodology adapted to archaeological remains from arid environments.

AB - A case study in the Late Stone Age site of Toteng, Botswana In Africa, the absence of wild ancestors' remains of domestic caprines indicates an exogenous origin of domestic sheep and goat. Archaeological evidences suggest that they were introduced in the Northern part of the continent by the 7 th millenium BCE, but only arrived in the Southern part by the 2 nd century BCE. Moreover, the morphological similarities existing between the two species among them, and with other small wild bovids like antelopes combined with the large amount of highly fragmented remains due to arid environnemental conditions have substantially limited the use of classical comparative anatomy analyses. We report here the use of a promising method, palaeoproteomics, on degraded bone and tooth splinters from the Late Stone Age site of Toteng, Botswana. This study is among the first to focuse on African archaeological remains, strongly degraded by arid burying conditions and diagenesis. The purpose of our work is to both document the presence of domestic caprines at this site, but also to develop a new methodology adapted to archaeological remains from arid environments.

UR - https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02551368

U2 - 10.13140/RG.2.2.21813.12008

DO - 10.13140/RG.2.2.21813.12008

M3 - Other contribution

ER -