Challenge To Molecular Archaeology-Sediments Contaminated By Allochthonous Animal Proteins

In this work we proposed a novel methodological approach to detect and differentiate between cooked and uncooked animal meat protein in archaeological samples. We tested two groups of materials: ceramic dated to the early medieval period (9th-10th centuries CE) and soil samples collected from the same stratigraphic layer that yielded these pottery fragments. Using an ELISA immunological test designed to identify cooked pork, we found that pig proteins were present in the studied pottery specimens, but the surrounding soil contained only uncooked pig proteins. We interpret this observation in the sense that the ceramic vessels might be used for cooking pork meat in the historic times. Pig proteins identified in soil matrix are of different origin, however, and represent probably contamination from wild pigs' manure, dropped in the area of the sampled archaeological site until the present day.This study suggests a new way of dealing with the complexities associated with research of biomolecules extracted from archaeological samples-particularly those related to the fact that typical study sites may contain a mixture of ancient raw and artificially processed proteins as well as original protein content plus secondarily introduced/contaminating proteins (and other types of biomolecules) of the same species.