The proteomic and isotopic analysis of parchment and their application to post-medieval sheep husbandry in Britain
The archives and libraries of Europe are full of dead animals. As the primary medium for writing for over 1000-years, tens of millions of durable parchment skins were manufactured, many of which survive to this day. While a few are illuminated Gospels or Royal Charters, the vast majority are mundane legal deeds concerning the ownership or right over property. When viewed simply as a textual resource, they are often considered to be of limited historic value and risk being deaccessioned or refused by archives. However, as a physical object they are an extraordinary high-resolution zooarchaeological and molecular archive, through which centuries of craft, trade and animal husbandry can be explored. To explore the use of parchment as an isotopic resource, sheep, goat, pig and calfskin parchment was manufactured, identifying an impact from production on the measured values in fresh skin. The isotopic relationship between skin and bone was explored though paired samples to aid the integration of parchment results with bone collagen data; and a freeranging diet study undertaken on a modern flock of sheep to examine the isotopic spacing between diet, bone, skin and parchment. These results were used to interpret
Doherty, Sean
The proteomic and isotopic analysis of parchment and their application to post-medieval sheep husbandry in Britain. The archives and libraries of Europe are full of dead animals. As the primary medium for writing for over 1000-years, tens of millions of durable parchment skins were manufactured, many of which survive to this day. While a few are illuminated Gospels or Royal Charters, the vast majority are mundane legal deeds concerning the ownership or right over property. When viewed simply as a textual resource, they are often considered to be of limited historic value and risk being deaccessioned or refused by archives. However, as a physical object they are an extraordinary high-resolution zooarchaeological and molecular archive, through which centuries of craft, trade and animal husbandry can be explored. To explore the use of parchment as an isotopic resource, sheep, goat, pig and calfskin parchment was manufactured, identifying an impact from production on the measured values in fresh skin. The isotopic relationship between skin and bone was explored though paired samples to aid the integration of parchment results with bone collagen data; and a freeranging diet study undertaken on a modern flock of sheep to examine the isotopic spacing between diet, bone, skin and parchment. These results were used to interpret
isotopic_analysis application post_medieval sheep husbandry britain archive library europe full dead animal primary medium write years durable skin manufacture many survive day gospels royal vast_majority mundane legal deed concern ownership right property view simply textual resource often_consider limited historic value risk archive however physical_object extraordinary high_resolution zooarchaeological molecular archive century craft trade animal_husbandry explore explore use isotopic resource sheep_goat pig manufacture identify impact production measure value fresh skin isotopic relationship skin bone explore though sample aid integration bone_collagen data diet study undertaken modern flock sheep examine isotopic space diet bone skin use_interpret