ACAD Guest Speaker - Dr Colin Smith

Hosted by the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD)

ACAD presented Dr Colin Smith, ARC Future Fellow,Archaeology Program,La Trobe University.

The most common encounter that archaeologists or palaeontologists will have with ancient proteins is the use of bone collagen as a substrate for radiocarbon dating, or stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, usually for palaeodietary or palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Collagen is a robust protein, but it does not usually survive in quantities for isotopic analysis for much longer than 100kyr. Moreover co-extraction of environmental contaminants (especially from collagen poor bone) can be problematic for bulk isotope analysis, as can the analysis of less well-characterised protein from other palaeobiological sources.

Liquid chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LC-IRMS) is a technique capable of measuring carbon isotope ratios in the constituent amino acids of proteins. LC-IRMS can purify, and characterise sma ll samples of protein and is thus ideal for isotopic analysis of older (e.g. >100kya) and more degraded ancient protein samples for palaeodietary/ environmental reconstruction.

Colin will talk about his application of LC-IRMS to extract isotopic information from substrates such as contaminated/ degraded archaeological collagen samples and other uncharacterised mineralised proteins, such as mollusc shell and eggshell. The presentation will also include how it can be used to investigate prehistory at a weekly scale through high-resolution palaeodietary analysis of mummy hair.

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