MALDI-TOF MS spectra of archaeological whale bone specimens from Atlantic Europe ...

• Main Authors: Van Den Hurk, Youri, Sikström, Fanny, Amkreutz, Luc, Bleasdale, Madeleine, Borvon, Aurélia, Ephrem, Brice, Fernández-Rodríguez, Carlos, Gibbs, Hannah, Johnsson, Leif, Lehouck, Alexander, Martínez Cedeira, Jose, Meng, Stefan, Monge Soares, Rui, Moreno, Marta, Nabais, Mariana, Nores, Carlos, Pis Millán, José Antonio, Riddler, Ian, Schmölcke, Ulrich, Segschneider, Martin, Speller, Camilla, Vretemark, Maria, Wickler, Stephen, Collins, Matthew, Nadeau, Marie-Josée, Barrett, James
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: FOS History and archaeology; zooarchaeology; collagen fingerprinting ZooMS; Whales; cetacean; Norway; Eubalaena glacialis; North Atlantic; North Atlantic right whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zgmsbcch7; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.zgmsbcch7

Whale bones are regularly found during archaeological excavations. Identification of these specimens to taxonomic levels is problematic due to their fragmented state. This lack of taxonomic resolution limits understanding of the past spatiotemporal distributions of whale populations and reconstructions of early whaling activities. To overcome this challenge, we performed Zooarchaeology by Mass-Spectrometry on an unprecedented selection of 719 archaeological and palaeontological specimens of probable whale bone from Atlantic European contexts, from the Middle to Late Neolithic (c.3500–2500 BCE) to the eighteenth century CE. The results show high numbers of Balaenidae (most likely North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)) and grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) specimens, two species no longer present in the eastern North Atlantic. Many of these specimens derive from contexts associated with the known medieval whaling cultures of the Basques, northern Spaniards, Normans, Flemish, Frisians, Anglo-Saxons, ... : Whale bone samples were taken using a ©Dremel rotary tool removing a small piece of bone weighing up to c.500 mg. For 474 specimens, collagen was extracted using a modified Longin (1971) method as detailed in Seiler et al. (2019), with the addition of a lipid extraction step and the use of a higher acid concentration, at the National Laboratory for Age Determination, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. Initially, the samples were crushed into small pieces and cleaned in an ultrasonic bath with 18.2 MΩ-cm ultrapure water (type 1) (three times five minutes). The samples were then ultrasonicated for 15 minutes in dichloromethane and methanol (2:1). This step was repeated three or more times until the solution was clear. Following this, the material was demineralized overnight using 2.44 M HCl (50 ml of solution per 100 mg of bone) in glass tubes within a vacuum desiccator kept at room temperature. The samples were then washed with ultrapure water until a pH of 3 to 4 and 4 ml of 0.5 % NaOH ...