Pierced deer tooth found in Denisova cave in Siberia
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
DNA imbued in a moose tooth pendant some 25,000 years ago provides clues to the ancient woman who wore it.
The teeth, which were worn as beads on a necklace, are thought to have absorbed DNA from the sweat that hit their chest and neck. Marie Solessi and her colleagues at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands were able to extract the DNA of the tooth without damaging it through a new process that took eight years to develop. It could reveal unprecedented details about conventions and gender roles, Soressi says.
“For the first time, we were able to associate objects with individuals,” she says. “For example, were bone needles made and used only by women, or were they used by men too? Were you? With this new technology, we can finally start talking about it and explore the role of individuals according to their biological sex, genetic identity and family ties.”
Scientists suspect that ancient tools, weapons, decorative beads, and other crafted artifacts contain the DNA of those who touched them. However, removing DNA from these objects usually means removing sections for analysis, causing permanent damage. “We definitely didn’t want to,” he says Soressi.
To see if it’s possible to extract DNA from ancient artifacts without destroying them, Soressi and her colleagues tested 10 previously unearthed artifacts from Paleolithic caves in France that were treated with chemicals and Many combinations of heating methods were tested. found that relatively large amounts of human DNA were released without giving
The team then tested the procedure on another 15 bone specimens excavated from one of the caves. Gene sequencing has revealed a variety of human DNA. Perhaps a scientist or engineer who has worked with artifacts for years, Soressi said.
To avoid such modern-day DNA contamination, the researchers tested their technique on four tooth pendants excavated by colleagues in Russia and Bulgaria wearing sterile gloves and face masks. Their analysis revealed DNA from most animals that matched the species used to make the pendants.
But one of the tooth pendants from Denisova Cave in Russia also contained fragments of DNA, mostly from one human being.There was enough genetic material for researchers to reliably identify a female sage In addition to elk (canadian deer) offered teeth.
If she made the pendant, humans could have rubbed her DNA into the pendant, but the large amount of DNA recovered suggests she was the individual who wore it. Yes, says Soressi. “Because of the porous material, the teeth were probably soaked with sweat,” she says. “It acted like a sponge, pulling in her DNA in that human, where she trapped for 25,000 years.”
DNA has shown that the woman is closely related to an ancient tribe that has so far been found only over 1,500 kilometers to the east.
Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer of Tel Aviv University in Israel thinks the paper is “very interesting” because it could help explain the purpose of ancient jewelry. For example, it could indicate the identity of the wearer or their group, or something about their marital status, she says. If you find them in the , you’ll have a better clue as to what they mean.”
The technology could also help resolve a long-running scientific debate about whether certain artifacts were made and worn by humans. clever person Or Neanderthals, she adds.
The study could open the door to DNA analysis of museum artifacts around the world, says David Frayer of the University of Kansas. “Curators are often hesitant to damage specimens for DNA analysis, no matter how small the extraction,” he says. “The absolute strength of this paper is that [their] The procedure circumvents it. If it could be extended to specimens cleaned long ago, this would be a giant leap for ancient DNA research. “
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