Metaproteomic approaches to ancient foodways: A review

Abstract

Proteomic approaches to understanding ancient foodways have rapidly expanded in recent years, addressing diverse questions, regions and sample types. Proteins are well placed to explore questions of ancient food given that they can sometimes provide tissue and taxonomically specific ingredient detections and can be resistant to degradation into archaeological timescales. Here I review the development of protein studies of ancient foodways, and current and future research agendas. The development of protein-based approaches to ancient foodways is reviewed, spanning early amino-acid and immunological approaches to residues on stone tools and pottery, then shifting to a discovery based “shotgun” approach. The sample types that have yielded proteomic insights into ancient food are outlined, including stone tools and pottery and their residues, well preserved food remains, dental calculus and other organic remains. Finally, the current research agendas are laid out, including understanding the biases which impact protein preservation, optimising extraction and data analysis pipelines for ancient samples, and implementing multi-method approaches. Suggestions for future studies include further development and refinement of ancient protein authentication and screening approaches, and a focus on benchmarking expected protein results from a diverse range of experimental studies of intentional actions such as food preparation practices and incidental taphonomic factors, the results of which will inform expected preservation and provide a basis of archaeological interpretations.