Questions to think about:

What does the acronym ZooMS stand for? Who coined it?
What is a "protein fingerprint"?
Where is collagen found in the body?
What does it mean for a protein to be "structural"?
Why is collagen one of the longest preserving proteins in archaeological remains?
What characteristics of collagen make it good for identifying species?
What is trypsin, and what is its role in peptide fingerprinting?
Why is it archaeologically important to be able to distinguish sheep and goat remains during the Neolithic? How do these animals relate to the Secondary Products Revolution?
At what level of taxonomic resolution is ZooMS informative?
How much bone is typically needed for ZooMS analysis?
Is bone the only material used for ZooMS? What other organic remains has ZooMS been applied to?
Why is parchment made of?
Why is ZooMS particularly suited to studing medieval parchment manuscripts?
When ZooMS was applied to the York Gospels, what suprises did it reveal?

Lecture slides handout:

Lecture PDF

Required Readings:

Collins et al. 2010

Buckley and Kansa 2011

Required Media:

Traditional Mongolian folk song "Khaluun elgen nutag" sung by horse herder and linguist Dr. Erdene-Ochir and recorded by Bjorn Reichhardt

University of York: ZooMS

Presentation Options: McKenzie

Welker et al. 2016

Optional Readings:

Want to know more? See the articles and links below for more detailed information about topics covered in class lectures.