International Research Fellowship Program: Development of New Preparative Techniques for the Separation of Amino Acids and Peptides Extracted from Ancient Materials

Tripp Jennifer A, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

0202648 Tripp The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Jennifer A. Tripp to work with Dr. Robert Hedges at Oxford University's Research Laboratory for Archaeology (RLAHA) in the United Kingdom. Co-funding for this project comes from the Math and Physical Science Directorate's Office of Multidisciplinary Activities. The dating and isotopic analysis of specific compounds from archaeological materials is a new and promising approach to artifact analysis. Isolating individual compounds from ancient materials ensures that input from modern or ancient impurities is eliminated, and that analyses are performed on well-defined material. Currently no general techniques for performing compound-specific dating on collagen, chitin or cellulose exist. The aim of this project is to develop and refine technologies for isolating components of hydrolysates from these three biological polymers in order to perform reliable and routine accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) C14 dating and stable isotope analyses. The anticipated outcomes of this project are (a) specific improvements in the compound-specific analyses of archaeological materials, and (b) the development and publication of a methodology that would be of general use in archaeological science laboratories. The RLAHA is one of the world's premier locations for studying archaeological science. The UK has numerous facilities and an active community of researchers conducting ongoing archaeological science research, and Oxford has a particular reputation for the purification of archaeological material for isotope measurement.