ArticleScientific reports2021
Palaeoproteomics confirm earliest domesticated sheep in southern Africa ca. 2000 BP.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Molecular and zooarchaeological identification of 5000 year old whale-bone harpoons in coastal Brazil.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sex Identification and Species Confirmation in Modern and Archeological Caprine Enamel.Journal of proteome research · 2025Article
- Article
- Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A holocene n-alkane stable isotope record from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa and its implications for the later stone age record.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Genetic and Epigenetic Adaptation Mechanisms of Sheep Under Multi-Environmental Stress Environment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- History and genetic diversity of African sheep: Contrasting phenotypic and genomic diversity.Animal genetics · 2025Review
- A label-free quantification method for assessing sex from modern and ancient bovine tooth enamel.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Sequential trypsin and ProAlanase digestions unearth immunological protein biomarkers shrouded by skeletal collagen.iScience · 2024Article
- Increasing sustainability in palaeoproteomics by optimizing digestion times for large-scale archaeological bone analyses.iScience · 2024Article
- Bioarchaeology and evidence of violence from a precolonial later stone age communal burial in South Africa.PloS one · 2024Article
- Spectra without stories: reporting 94% dark and unidentified ancient proteomes.Open research Europe · 2024Article
- The name of the game: palaeoproteomics and radiocarbon dates further refine the presence and dispersal of caprines in eastern and southern Africa.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- ZooMS confirms geometric morphometrics species identification of ancient sheep and goat.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Chemical evidence for milk, meat, and marine resource processing in Later Stone Age pots from Namaqualand, South Africa.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Human and Animal Fascioliasis: Origins and Worldwide Evolving Scenario.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2022Review
- Blue Turns to Gray: Paleogenomic Insights into the Evolutionary History and Extinction of the Blue Antelope (Hippotragus leucophaeus).Molecular biology and evolution · 2022Article
- Paleoproteomics.Chemical reviews · 2022Review
- Review
- A primer for ZooMS applications in archaeology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We used palaeoproteomics and peptide mass fingerprinting to obtain secure species identifications of key specimens of early domesticated fauna from South Africa, dating to ca. 2000 BP. It can be difficult to distinguish fragmentary remains of early domesticates (sheep) from similar-sized local wild bovids (grey duiker, grey rhebok, springbok-southern Africa lacks wild sheep) based on morphology alone. Our analysis revealed a Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) marker (m/z 1532) present in wild bovids and we demonstrate through LC-MS/MS that it is capable of discriminating between wild bovids and caprine domesticates. We confirm that the Spoegrivier specimen dated to 2105 ± 65 BP is indeed a sheep. This is the earliest directly dated evidence of domesticated animals in southern Africa. As well as the traditional method of analysing bone fragments, we show the utility of minimally destructive sampling methods such as PVC eraser and polishing films for successful ZooMS identification. We also show that collagen extracted more than 25 years ago for the purpose of radiocarbon dating can yield successful ZooMS identification. Our study demonstrates the importance of developing appropriate regional frameworks of comparison for future research using ZooMS as a method of biomolecular species identification.
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