Simon McGrory

Current Research Project

Enhancing the resolution of past cattle husbandry with biomolecular archaeology

Cattle underpinned the economy of many parts of northern Europe from the Neolithic onwards. Analysis of animal-bone assemblages is the key to analysing the economic and social pressures that drove pastoral decision-making. Conventional zooarchaeological analysis relies on the use of age and sex profiles to establish kill-off patterns associated with different pastoral strategies (milking, meat production, stock-raising for local subsistence or market economies, etc.). However, these methods are limited by an inability to determine sex, except on very few bone elements. These have not previously been the same elements used to determine age, which leads to problems with interpretation. The central aim of my thesis is to combine well-established conventional approaches with a new generation of biomolecular techniques to transform the understanding of long-term changes in animal husbandry.

This integrated approach will combine conventional age estimation based on tooth eruption and wear with sex determination using (i) DNA based sexing by detection of the Y chromosome to identify males;(ii) discrimination of the sex-linked tooth enamel protein amelogenin by mass spectrometry. The interpretation of the mortality profiles obtained can be aided by a further test, histological examination of bone osteons, which reflect bone tissue turnover and hence can identify calcium deficiencies induced by dairying. All of these tests can be performed on the same bony element, i.e. the mandible, providing a greatly improved resolution over conventional methodology.

Other Interests Include

• Veterinary palaeopathology
• Megafaunal extinction
• Palaeoanthropology
• Science in archaeology