BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, Environment Building, Wentworth Way, YO10 5DD York, UK.
Section for Evolutionary Genomics, the GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5A, 1353 København K, Denmark.
Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Jul 14;288(1954):20210020. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0020. Epub 2021 Jul 7.
The domestic dog has inhabited the anthropogenic niche for at least 15 000 years, but despite their impact on human strategies, the lives of dogs and their interactions with humans have only recently become a subject of interest to archaeologists. In the Arctic, dogs rely exclusively on humans for food during the winter, and while stable isotope analyses have revealed dietary similarities at some sites, deciphering the details of provisioning strategies have been challenging. In this study, we apply zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to dog palaeofaeces to investigate protein preservation in this highly degradable material and obtain information about the diet of domestic dogs at the Nunalleq site, Alaska. We identify a suite of digestive and metabolic proteins from the host species, demonstrating the utility of this material as a novel and viable substrate for the recovery of gastrointestinal proteomes. The recovered proteins revealed that the Nunalleq dogs consumed a range of Pacific salmon species (coho, chum, chinook and sockeye) and that the consumed tissues derived from muscle and bone tissues as well as roe and guts. Overall, the study demonstrated the viability of permafrost-preserved palaeofaeces as a unique source of host and dietary proteomes.
家犬在人类栖居环境中至少已经存在了 15000 年，但尽管它们对人类的策略产生了影响，狗的生活及其与人类的相互作用直到最近才成为考古学家关注的主题。在北极，狗在冬季完全依赖人类获取食物，尽管稳定同位素分析揭示了一些地点的饮食相似性，但解读供应策略的细节一直具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们应用基于质谱的动物考古学（ZooMS）和液相色谱串联质谱法对狗的古粪便进行分析，以研究这种高度易降解物质中的蛋白质保存情况，并获取阿拉斯加努纳勒克遗址家犬饮食信息。我们从宿主物种中鉴定出了一系列消化和代谢蛋白，证明了这种材料作为一种新颖且可行的胃肠道蛋白质组回收底物的实用性。回收的蛋白质表明，努纳勒克的狗食用了多种太平洋三文鱼（银鲑、狗鲑、红鲑和红大麻哈鱼），食用的组织来源于肌肉和骨骼组织以及鱼卵和内脏。总的来说，该研究证明了永久冻土保存的古粪便作为宿主和饮食蛋白质组的独特来源具有可行性。
