Threatened North African seagrass meadows have supported green turtle populations for millennia

"Protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity" is the second official aim of the current UN Ocean Decade (2021 to 2030) calling for the identification and protection of critical marine habitats. However, data to inform policy are often lacking altogether or confined to recent times, preventing the establishment of long-term baselines. The unique insights gained from combining bioarchaeology (palaeoproteomics, stable isotope analysis) with contemporary data (from satellite tracking) identified habitats which sea turtles have been using in the Eastern Mediterranean over five millennia. Specifically, our analysis of archaeological green turtle (Chelonia mydas) bones revealed that they likely foraged on the same North African seagrass meadows as their modern-day counterparts. Here, millennia-long foraging habitat fidelity has been directly demonstrated, highlighting the significance (and long-term dividends) of protecting these critical coastal habitats that are especially vulnerable to global warming. We highlight the potential for historical ecology to inform policy in safeguarding critical marine habitats

Facing death: a multidisciplinary analysis of a Romano-Egyptian mummy mask at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to conservator Rebecca Hast for facilitating the examination of the mask. We thank Sita Østergaard, a master's student in conservation at the Royal Danish Academy for her help mounting the slides for fibre analysis. We thank the Royal Danish Academy – Institute of Conservation for permitting us to utilise the scanning electron microscope, and Dr. Stefan Zumbühl for permission to use the copper oxalate FTIR spectrum in Fig 11. We are also grateful to Egyptologist Tine Bagh for her commentary and revision of the manuscript.Funder: Copenhagen UniversityAbstractFunerary masks played a crucial role in ancient Egyptian burial practices, as part of the rituals to ensure a successful afterlife. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of a gilded mummy mask from the Roman period in Egypt from the collections of The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Portraying a young female, the mask belongs to a distinctive group of mummy masks, whose origins can be identified to be coming from the Dakhlah and Kharga oases. The construction of the mask (plaster, textiles) and the constituents of its polychromy (pigments, binding media) was analysed using various non- and micro-destructive methods: imaging, cross-section analysis, optical microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled to energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Additionally, samples were taken for palaeoproteomic analysis with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. A wide range of pigments such as yellow and red ochre, carbon-based black, and Egyptian blue were identified, reflecting common materials in polychromy in Egypt during the Roman period. Notably, indigo was detected, suggesting its usage in mixtures to render purple hues. Analysis of adhesives and media identified plant gum and collagen-based animal glue. Proteomic analysis identified Equus asinus (donkey) as the predominant protein source for the collagen-based glue. The results shed light on the materials and techniques employed in ancient polychromy in Egypt in the Roman period, further enriching our understanding of artistic practices at the time.</jats:p

ArcHives—combined palynological, genomic and lipid analysis of medieval wax seals

Abstract Beeswax is a product of honeybees (Apis mellifera) and has been used extensively through time, especially as the primary component in medieval sealing wax for authenticating millions of documents. Today, these seals form large collections which, along with the historical information in the documents that the seals are attached to, could be a potential biomolecular archive for honeybees. Here, we investigate the possibility of obtaining biological information from medieval wax seals by performing a palynological and shotgun metagenomic analysis on eight medieval wax seal fragments. Our palynological results show that some pollen and fungal spores remain in the seals, albeit very little. Only one out of eight samples yielded enough DNA for sequencing. Moreover, only minor parts of the DNA reads could be taxonomically identified and were identified as plant and fungal DNA. These results demonstrate some potential for using wax seals as biological archives, but most importantly provides a framework for future studies, in addition to understanding further the degradation of seals as cultural heritage objects. We emphasize that future analyses should focus on other methodologies to retrieve data for historical context or alternatively improve molecular methods and screen sample collections broadly

Grouping groupers in the Mediterranean: Ecological baselines revealed by ancient proteins

Publication status: PublishedFunder: Northern Way InitiativeMarine historical ecology provides a means to establish baselines to inform current fisheries management. Groupers (Epinephelidae) are key species for fisheries in the Mediterranean, which have been heavily overfished. Species abundance and distribution prior to the 20th century in the Mediterranean remains poorly known. To reconstruct the past biogeography of Mediterranean groupers, we investigated whether Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) can be used for identifying intra‐genus grouper bones to species level. We discovered 22 novel, species‐specific ZooMS biomarkers for groupers. Applying these biomarkers to Kinet Höyük, a Mediterranean archaeological site, demonstrated 4000 years of regional Epinephelus aeneus dominance and resiliency through millennia of fishing pressures, habitat degradation and climatic changes. Combining ZooMS identifications with catch size reconstructions revealed the Epinephelus aeneus capacity for growing 30 cm larger than hitherto documented, revising the maximum Total Length from 120 to 150 cm. Our results provide ecological baselines for a key Mediterranean fishery which could be leveraged to define and assess conservation targets