Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:58:28.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dating of Individual Amino Acids from Archaeological Bone Collagen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

James S O McCullagh ,
Anat Marom  and
Robert E M Hedges
James S O McCullagh*
Affiliation:
Chemistry Research Laboratory, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX13TA, United Kingdom
Anat Marom
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA), Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Robert E M Hedges
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA), Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Since the development of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for radiocarbon dating in the late 1970s, its ability to date small samples of bone has been of huge importance in archaeology and Quaternary paleoecology. The conventional approach to sample preparation has been to extract and gelatinize protein, which is then combusted and graphitized for analysis. However, this “bulk protein” can contain a heterogeneous mixture of non-collagenous molecules, including humic acids and other soil components that may be of a different age than the bone and therefore affect the accuracy of its 14C date. Sample pretreatment methods have been an important area of development in recent years but still show inadequacies for the dating of severely contaminated bone. The idea of isolating and dating individual compounds such as single amino acids, to improve dating accuracy, has been discussed in the literature since the 1960s. Hydroxyproline, for example, makes up over 10% of bone collagen but is extremely rare in most other animal proteins, increasing the chances of its presence being endogenous to the individual being dated. Its successful isolation has therefore been considered a potential “gold standard” for dating archaeological bone; however, extracting and suitably purifying single amino acids from bone has proved a challenging task.

Type
Bone Dating and Paleodiet Studies
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 620 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Ambrose, SH. 1990. Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17(4):431–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, SH, Krigbaum, J. 2003. Bone chemistry and bioarchaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22(3):193–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bada, JL, Gillespie, R, Gowlett, JAJ, Hedges, REM. 1984. Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages of amino acid extracts from Californian palaeoindian skeletons. Nature 312(5993):442–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowman, S. 1995. Radiocarbon Dating. London: British Museum Press. 64 p.Google Scholar
Bradford, E. 1982. The Story of the Mary Rose. Over Wallop: BAS printers. 207 p.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T. 2007. Quality assurance of ultrafiltered bone dating. Radiocarbon 49(2):187–92.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–63.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Ditchfield, P, Humm, M. 2004a. Using a gas ion source for radiocarbon AMS and GC-AMS. Radiocarbon 46(1):25–32.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Leach, P. 2004b. Towards high-precision AMS: progress and limitations. Radiocarbon 46(1):17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Bowles, A, Hedges, R. 2004c. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.Google Scholar
Brown, TA, Nelson, DE, Vogel, JS, Southon, JR. 1988. Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30(2):171–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dee, M, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2000 Refinement of graphite target production at ORAU. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1–4):449–53.Google Scholar
Eastoe, JE. 1955. The amino acid composition of mammalian collagen and gelatin. Biochemical Journal 61(4):589–600.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R, Hedges, REM. 1983. Sample chemistry for the Oxford high energy mass spectrometer. Radiocarbon 25(2):771–4.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R, Hedges, REM, Wand, JO. 1984. Radiocarbon dating of bone by accelerator mass spectrometry. Journal of Archaeological Science 11(2):165–70.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM, van Klinken, GJ. 1992. A review of current approaches in the pretreatment of bone for radiocarbon dating by AMS. Radiocarbon 34(3):279–91.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM, Wallace, CJA. 1978. The survival of biochemical information in archaeological bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 5(4):377–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, TY, Marcus, LF, Berger, R. 1969. Radiocarbon dating of petroleum-impregnated bone from tar pits at Rancho La Brea, California. Science 164(883):1051–2.Google Scholar
Higham, TFG, Jacobi, RM, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2006. AMS radiocarbon dating of ancient bone using ultrafiltration. Radiocarbon 48(2):179–95.Google Scholar
Lambert, B, Grupe, G. 1993. Prehistoric Human Bone: Archaeology at the Molecular Level. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241–2.Google Scholar
Luo, H, Carr, PW. 2008. Silica-based, acid-stable stationary phases for high performance liquid chromatography. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 391(3):919–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCullagh, JSO, Juchelka, D, Hedges, REM. 2006. Analysis of amino acid 13C abundance from human and faunal bone collagen using liquid chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 20(18):2761–8.Google Scholar
McCullagh, JSO, Gaye-Siessegger, J, Focken, J. 2008. Determination of underivatized amino acid δ13C by liquid chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry for nutritional studies: the effect of dietary non-essential amino acid profile on the isotopic signature of individual amino acids in fish. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 22(12):1817–22.Google Scholar
McCullagh, JSO. 2010. Mixed-mode chromatography/isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 24(5):483–94.Google Scholar
Mollenhauer, G, Rethemeyer, J. 2009. Compound-specific radiocarbon analysis—analytical challenges and applications. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 5(1):012006, doi:10.1088/1755-1307/5/1/012006.Google Scholar
Nelson, DE. 1991. A new method for carbon isotopic analysis of protein. Science 251(4993):552–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oswald, A, Dyer, C, Barber, M. 2001. The Creation of Monuments: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures in the British Isles. Swindon: English Heritage. 175 p.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–58.Google Scholar
Stafford, TW Jr, Jull, AJT, Brendel, K, Duhamel, RC, Donahue, D. 1987. Study of bone radiocarbon dating accuracy at the University of Arizona NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis. Radiocarbon 29(1):24–44.Google Scholar
Stafford, TW Jr, Bendel, K, Duhamel, RC. 1988. Radiocarbon 13C and 15N analysis of fossil bone: removal of humates with XAD-2 resin. Geochimica and Cosmochimica Acta 52(9):2257–67.Google Scholar
Stafford, TW Jr, Hare, PE, Currie, L, Jull, AJT, Donahue, DJ. 1991. Accelerator radiocarbon dating at the molecular level. Journal of Archaeological Science 18(1):35–72.Google Scholar
Stott, AW, Berstan, R, Evershed, RP, Hedges, REM, Bronk Ramsey, C, Humm, MJ. 2001. Radiocarbon dating of single compounds isolated from pottery cooking vessel residues. Radiocarbon 43(2A):191–7.Google Scholar
Stott, AW, Berstan, R, Evershed, RP, Bronk-Ramsey, C, Hedges, REM, Humm, MJ. 2003. Direct dating of archaeological pottery by compound-specific 14C analysis of preserved lipids. Analytical Chemistry 75(19):5037–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, RE, Hare, PE, Pior, C, Kirner, D, Wan, L, Burky, R. 1995. Radiocarbon dating of biochemically characterized hair. Radiocarbon 37(2):319–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teutenberg, T, Holzhauser, MT, Kiffmeyer, TK. 2006. Evaluation of column bleed by using an ultraviolet and a charged aerosol detector coupled to a high-temperature liquid chromatographic system. Journal of Chromatography A 1119:197–201.Google Scholar
Tripp, JA, McCullagh, JSO, Hedges, REM. 2006. Preparative separation of underivatized amino acids for compound-specific stable isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of hydrolyzed bone collagen. Journal of Separation Science 29(1):41–8Google Scholar
Udenfriend, S. 1966. Formation of hydroxyproline in collagen. Science 152(3727):1335–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Klinken, GJ. 1991. Dating and dietary reconstruction by isotopic analysis of amino acids in fossil bone collagen - with special reference to the Caribbean [PhD dissertation]. University of Groningen, Netherlands.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ. 1999. Bone collagen quality indicators for palaeodietary and radiocarbon measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26(6):687–95.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ, Hedges, REM. 1992. Experiments on 14C dating of contaminated bone using peptides resulting from enzymatic cleavage of collagen. Radiocarbon 34(3):292–5.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ, Hedges, REM. 1997. Chemistry strategies for organic radiocarbon samples. Radiocarbon 40(1):51–6.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ, Mook, WG. 1990. Preparative high performance liquid chromatographic separation of individual amino acids derived from fossil bone collagen. Radiocarbon 32(2):155–64.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ, Bowles, AD, Hedges, REM. 1994. Radiocarbon dating of peptides isolated from contaminated fossil bone-collagen by collagenase digestion and reversed-phase chromatography. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58(11):2543–51.Google Scholar
Vaughan, J. 1975. The Physiology of Bone. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 324 p.Google Scholar
Wand, JO. 1981. Microsample preparation for radiocarbon dating [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Oxford University.Google Scholar