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Dating Reassembled Collagen from Fossil Bones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

Larisa Goldenberg ,
Lior Regev ,
Eugenia Mintz  and
Elisabetta Boaretto
Larisa Goldenberg
Affiliation:
Weizmann Institute of Science, Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Rehovot, Israel
Lior Regev
Affiliation:
Weizmann Institute of Science, Ringgold Standard Institution, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Rehovot, Israel
Eugenia Mintz
Affiliation:
Weizmann Institute of Science, Scientific Archaeology Unit, Rehovot, Israel
Elisabetta Boaretto*
Affiliation:
Weizmann Institute of Science, Ringgold Standard Institution, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Rehovot, Israel Weizmann Institute of Science, Scientific Archaeology Unit, Rehovot, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Email: elisabetta.boaretto@weizmann.ac.il.
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Abstract

Insoluble bone collagen is one of the most common materials used for high-resolution radiocarbon (14C) dating. Unfortunately, in some bones, poor preservation of the insoluble collagen excludes the possibility of dating. During the burial of the bone the collagen sometimes degrades into peptides. These peptides are soluble in the acid used to dissolve the bone mineral. It is known that under appropriate conditions, collagen has the ability to self-assemble. Here we exploit this capability and present a method for reassembling the soluble collagen peptides in archaeological bones and dating them. We treated the acid fraction generated during the demineralization of the bone by desalting and neutralizing the solution by dialysis. During the dialysis, the soluble collagen peptides reassemble and precipitate in the dialysis bag. We used FTIR spectroscopy to determine that the precipitated material is indeed collagen. The 14C dates obtained from the reassembled collagen were compared to the dates of “standard” insoluble collagen, extracted in parallel from the same bone. Although there are some divergences of the dates, 3 out of 10 samples could have been dated only by the reassembled collagen. This shows that collagen peptides reassembly can be a valuable tool for dating bones with little or no insoluble collagen.

Keywords

AMS datingcollagencollagen reassemblydegradationFTIR spectroscopy
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1487 - 1496
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

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