TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of isotopic variability in proteinaceous tissues of a domesticated herbivore
T2 - A baseline for zooarchaeological investigation
AU - Von Holstein, I. C.C.
AU - Hamilton, J.
AU - Craig, O. E.
AU - Newton, J.
AU - Collins, M. J.
PY - 2013/12/15
Y1 - 2013/12/15
N2 -
RATIONALE A variety of metabolic, dietary and climatic influences on isotopic variation have been established in mammalian hair. The relevance of these factors to collagen isotopic composition is unknown, but would be of great interest to zooarchaeological analyses of faunal skeletal tissue. METHODS The relationships between carbon (δ
13
C), nitrogen (δ
15
N), non-exchangeable hydrogen (δ
2
H) and oxygen (δ
18
O) values of defatted, demineralised and gelatinised bone collagen and defatted wool keratin from two sheep flocks (n = 20, 5) in the UK were investigated, including testing for the effects of nutritional plane, sex, pregnancy and season of sample collection. The sulfur composition (δ
34
S values) was also investigated for tissues from the smaller flock. RESULTS Bulk collagen was enriched in
13
C over bulk keratin by 2.0 - 2.7‰ and in
2
H by 29 - 40‰ but depleted in
18
O relative to keratin by 1.8‰. Differences in δ
15
N values were within experimental error. The collagen samples were generally more enriched in
34
S than keratin, but this was very variable. Pregnancy, sex and season, but not nutritional plane, significantly affected isotope values but did not change overall keratin-collagen relationships. CONCLUSIONS This dataset provides a baseline measure of variability and comparability for isotopic investigations into origin and husbandry conditions in archaeological sheep tissues, both collagen and keratin.
AB -
RATIONALE A variety of metabolic, dietary and climatic influences on isotopic variation have been established in mammalian hair. The relevance of these factors to collagen isotopic composition is unknown, but would be of great interest to zooarchaeological analyses of faunal skeletal tissue. METHODS The relationships between carbon (δ
13
C), nitrogen (δ
15
N), non-exchangeable hydrogen (δ
2
H) and oxygen (δ
18
O) values of defatted, demineralised and gelatinised bone collagen and defatted wool keratin from two sheep flocks (n = 20, 5) in the UK were investigated, including testing for the effects of nutritional plane, sex, pregnancy and season of sample collection. The sulfur composition (δ
34
S values) was also investigated for tissues from the smaller flock. RESULTS Bulk collagen was enriched in
13
C over bulk keratin by 2.0 - 2.7‰ and in
2
H by 29 - 40‰ but depleted in
18
O relative to keratin by 1.8‰. Differences in δ
15
N values were within experimental error. The collagen samples were generally more enriched in
34
S than keratin, but this was very variable. Pregnancy, sex and season, but not nutritional plane, significantly affected isotope values but did not change overall keratin-collagen relationships. CONCLUSIONS This dataset provides a baseline measure of variability and comparability for isotopic investigations into origin and husbandry conditions in archaeological sheep tissues, both collagen and keratin.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84886995397&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/rcm.6725
DO - 10.1002/rcm.6725
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24591021
AN - SCOPUS:84886995397
SN - 0951-4198
VL - 27
SP - 2601
EP - 2615
JO - Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
JF - Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
IS - 23
ER -