基于质谱的动物考古学研究现状与展望

动物考古学对于重建古代居民活动范围附近的生态环境以及古人类动物资源利用方面的行为信息至关重要,然而传统的动物考古学方法难以鉴别缺乏明确形态学鉴定特征的动物考古材料和动物制品。基于质谱的动物考古学(zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry,ZooMS)利用蛋白质酶切后肽段的一级质谱分析对动物遗存进行种属鉴定,是古蛋白质组学的重要研究方法。本文介绍ZooMS的原理、方法以及研究进展,希望促进ZooMS技术在国内考古学界的应用。同时,该技术在现代食品、药品、保健品、皮草和海关缉私等相关行业也有着广泛的应用前景。

Research progress and prospect of zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry

Zooarchaeology directly pertains to the palaeoecological reconstruction of ancient sites, as well as human behavioral information on faunal resource exploitation. However, the conventional zooarchaeological method fails to identify the archaeological animal materials or artefacts without sufficient morphological characteristics. Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) is an approach of palaeoproteomics, which conducts species identification using mass spectrometry of enzyme digested peptides. In this paper, the fundamentals, methods and latest research progress of ZooMS are overviewed in order to promote its development in the field of archaeology in China. In addition, ZooMS also has great potentials in food, medicine, health product, leather, customs anti-smuggling and other related industries or tasks.