Eland proteins found for the first time in 60,000-year-old ochre from South Africa

Ancient pigment preserved traces of a large animal

Ochre 60,000 years old, found on the coast of South Africa, preserved protein of an eland antelope. This conclusion was reached by specialists from Kyushu University in Japan, the University of Bergen, and the University of Copenhagen; the work was described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and the team was led by Japanese anthropologist Takumi Tsutaya.

How the analysis was carried out

The material for analysis was taken from the Klipdrift complex — a Stone Age archaeological site in the cliffs of the De Hoop Nature Reserve in the south of the continent. The protein was extracted from soil samples using paleoproteomics, that is, the mass analysis of ancient proteins, and its species identity was determined from fragments using chromatography and mass spectrometry. The collagen belonged to an eland — a large antelope of the African savannas. According to Gazeta.Ru, traces of organic impurities in ochre had previously been recorded extremely rarely, especially in Africa.

Two explanations for the find

The authors consider two explanations: either animal materials were deliberately added to the pigment, or hides processed with ochre were present at the site. In any case, the paint was in one way or another connected with a large animal, which, in the researchers' view, points to the sophisticated technical skills of Homo sapiens of that era.

Significance of the method and practical implications

The study confirmed that paleoproteomics can extract ancient proteins even from African deposits, where DNA is almost never preserved due to the heat. According to the publication, the method opens the way for scientists to materials that have long since vanished from the archaeological layer. People have used ochre for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years — the mineral was used both in everyday life and in rituals; until now, judgments about its use were based mainly on the shape and wear of the objects found. The samples from Klipdrift had been stored in an archive for a long time, and no new excavations were required for the analysis. This means that museum collections and materials from old expeditions can still tell us about the daily life and beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of these places, and similar searches for protein traces can now be carried out at comparable sites. The importance of the find lies in the fact that it provides direct evidence of a link between ancient paint and the animal world while simultaneously testing the method in a challenging hot climate; the practical implication is the ability to study already assembled collections without new fieldwork. The limitation of the data is that the exact reason for the presence of the protein in the ochre (an additive to the pigment or a trace of hides) has not yet been established.