Palaeoproteomics for sex identification of Holocene Teeth

This application is for permission to non-destructively micro-sample Khoesan Holocene teeth for extraction and analysis of ancient proteins. This only lightly whitens the colour and dulls the sheen of a small portion of the enamel. These specimens were all previously destructively sampled for ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses. Unfortunately, although the recovery of ancient DNA was good in many of these samples, our colleagues overseas have never held up their end of the bargain in terms of data release or publication. This study will help retrieve some information from these individuals, which will enable us to report back to the communities that we engaged with in the previous processes. The new study will provide demographic information (e.g. sex) for all individuals thereby increasing our understanding of Khoesan dental size variation. This study will also determine whether palaeoproteins and aDNA (as previously produced) are equally capable of providing genetic information at this time period in South Africa. Specimens for export include: SAM-AP 34, SAM-AP 1142, SAM-AP 1145, SAM-AP 3026, SAM-AP 3053, SAM-AP 4793, SAM-AP 4813, SAM-AP 4933, SAM-AP 6082, SAM-AP 6272, SAM-AP 6332, SAM-AP 6365.