Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis

Abstract

In this paper we describe a dry non-invasive extraction method to detect palaeoproteomic evidence from stained manuscripts. The manuscript analysed in this study is a medieval parchment birth girdle (Wellcome Collection Western MS. 632) made in England and thought to be used by pregnant women while giving birth. Using a dry non-invasive sampling method we were able to extract both human and non-human peptides from the stains, including evidence for the use of honey, cereals, ovicaprine milk and legumes. In addition, a large number of human peptides were detected on the birth roll, many of which are found in cervico-vaginal fluid. This suggests that the birth roll was actively used during childbirth. This study is the first to extract and analyse non-collagenous peptides from a parchment document using a dry non-invasive sampling method and demonstrates the potential of this type of analysis for stained manuscripts, providing direct biomolecular evidence for active use.

Curated cauldrons: Preserved proteins from early copper-alloy vessels illuminate feasting practices in the Caucasian steppe

“…Over the past decade, protein analysis has been applied to numerous archaeological materials, such as: human dental calculus, 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 skeletal remains, 28 , 29 mummified tissues, 30 leather, 31 parchment papers, 32 and more. Dietary proteins have been of special interest, as they provide proxy information on subsistence strategies, for example, evidence for dairy consumption or grain use can imply cultivation practices and human-animal interactions, lending insights into domestication and the use of primary and secondary products.…”

Touching the (almost) untouchable: a minimally invasive workflow for microbiological and biomolecular analyses of cultural heritage objects

“…For example, the determination of the animal source for the parchment used for manuscripts is based on the analysis of the collagen proteins of the animal's skin by mass spectrometry, coupled to a zoological database (Teasdale et al, 2015;Brandt et al, 2018). Additional examples are the determination of the type of pigments, binding agents, and other materials used for the manufacture of heritage objects (Radini et al, 2019;Schuetz et al, 2019) or the origin of stains and spills (Fiddyment et al, 2020;Warinner et al, 2022). In the present study, we focus on the microbial community analysis, exemplified by the analysis of bacterial communities, through cultivation and cultivation-independent approaches.…”

Combing through museum collections. A “museomic” application of ZooMS

“…Triboelectric‐based sampling methods, also called “eZooMS” (Fiddyment et al, 2015, 2019, 2020; Teasdale et al, 2017), are based on the phenomenon that collagen fragments may spontaneously adhere to surfaces which become electrically charged with friction, such as erasers, plastic bags, and specific membrane boxes for storing significant museum artifacts. The eraser‐based method is especially appropriate for the sampling of non‐mineralized materials such as parchment, although it has been applied to mineralized substrates such as ivory (Coutu et al, 2021).…”