Search

International audience; The origin of Tibetan papermaking is poorly documented. Up to now, only the Tibetan paper fragments from Endere and Dunhuang sites have been scientifically studied outlining the basic knowledge about plant fiber uses and artwork manufacturing procedures. In order to deepen the knowledge on the unique ancient Tibetan papermaking, we report here the analysis of a set of paper fragments from the Samye Monastery in south Tibet, China. Multidisciplinary scientific investigations utilizing 14C radiocarbon dating, microscopic observation, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), pyrolysis-comprehensive gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GCxGC/MS), and proteomic analysis have been applied to these ancient paper fragments. The results show that the fragments were dated to the 12th~13th century AD and made from fibers of the Thymelaeaceae family plant Stellera Chamaejasme L of which the fiber’s chemical profiles have been firstly studied. The presence of starch granules from Triticum spp wheat and proteins from bovine milk (more likely assigned to native yak), offers the first indication that a unique sizing technique using starch-milk sizing had been employed in early Tibetan papermaking, compared to using alum-animal glue sizing agent which is more popular in contemporary Central China. The combined use of organic material (unaltered starch grains) and inorganic material (calcium carbonate) as paper fillers is also firstly revealed in Tibetan papermaking. The application of Py-GC/MS, Py-GCxGC/MS and proteomic analysis revealed more detailed profiles of early Tibetan hand papermaking, indicating that these methods have great potential to explore the production technology of ancient handmade papers.

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is the only extant species of the genus Crocuta, which once occupied a much wider range during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. However, its origin and evolutionary history is somewhat contentious due to discordances between morphological, nuclear, and mitochondrial data. Due to the limited molecular data from east Asian Crocuta, also known as cave hyena, and the difficulty of extracting ancient DNA from this area, here we present proteomic analysis of cave hyenas from three locations in northern China. This marks the first proteomic data generated from cave hyenas, adding new molecular data to the east Asian populations. Phylogenetic analysis based on these protein sequences reveals two different groups of cave hyenas in east Asia, one of which could not be distinguished from modern spotted hyenas from northern Africa, tentatively the result of previously suggested gene flow between these lineages. With developments of instrumentation and analytical methods, proteomics holds promising potential for molecular phylogenetic reconstructions of ancient fauna previously thought to be unreachable using ancient DNA.

Archaeological dental calculus has emerged as a rich source of ancient biomolecules, including proteins. Previous analyses of proteins extracted from ancient dental calculus revealed the presence of the dietary milk protein β-lactoglobulin, providing direct evidence of dairy consumption in the archaeological record. However, the potential for calculus to preserve other food-related proteins has not yet been systematically explored. Here we analyse shotgun metaproteomic data from 100 archaeological dental calculus samples ranging from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period (eighth century BC to nineteenth century AD) in England, as well as 14 dental calculus samples from contemporary dental patients and recently deceased individuals, to characterize the range and extent of dietary proteins preserved in dental calculus. In addition to milk proteins, we detect proteomic evidence of foodstuffs such as cereals and plant products, as well as the digestive enzyme salivary amylase. We discuss the importance of optimized protein extraction methods, data analysis approaches and authentication strategies in the identification of dietary proteins from archaeological dental calculus. This study demonstrates that proteomic approaches can robustly identify foodstuffs in the archaeological record that are typically under-represented due to their poor macroscopic preservation.