Biomolecular Archaeology: Definition

Brief Definition of the Topic

Biomolecular archaeology, a subfield of archaeometry, is the study of ancient molecules (especially nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) produced by past living organisms, most often applied to identifying organic residues from archaeological sites and objects, recovering DNA from human tissues and skeletal remains, and studying genetic parameters of plant and animal domestication. Research seeks to understand the processes that result in the preservation of biomolecules as well as the ways in which biomolecules can be used to reconstruct paleoenvironments and, more broadly, assess human biological and cultural evolution. Analytical techniques derive principally from chemistry (e.g., mass spectroscopy, isotope analysis), evolutionary biology (e.g., PCR), and proteomics (e.g., immunoassay, decoding genomes), among other sources. Recent texts by Gaines and colleagues (2008) and by Brown and Brown (2011) review the field and current...