Identifying archaeological leather – discussing the potential of grain pattern analysis and zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) through a case study involving medieval shoe parts from Denmark

Leather Shoes in Early Danish Cities: Choices of Animal Resources and Specialization of Crafts in Viking and Medieval Denmark

“…Ebsen et al (2019). Despite the prospects offered by grain pattern analysis, here the success rate of ZooMS demonstrates the method's great potential for species identification, even from decayed archaeological leather finds without characteristic morphological features (Ebsen et al, 2019).…”

“…It may be difficult to determine animal species from leather fragments (see Ebsen et al, 2019) because certain shoe elements, such as soles, rands, and laces, reveal little or no grain pattern, compared to the uppers. Therefore, the exploitation of animal species for leather and the choices of leather for different shoe elements requires refining further.…”

“…b) Upper from Ribe (ASR1843 x180a), identified as goat by ZooMS.DISCUSSIONIdentification of shoe leather with ZooMSOut of the 115 samples of medieval shoe leather investigated c. seventy-two per cent were identified to species level by ZooMS. Of these, 105 were also analysed for preserved grain patterns byEbsen et al (2019). Sixty-eight shoe parts (primarily soles) did not have preserved grain patterns and hence could not be analysed.…”

Ancient protein analysis in archaeology

“…The approach was built upon work that examined the taxonomic origin of pelts, furs, feathers, and other animal products to aid in the identification of animal product trade and import/export ( 51 ). For archeological questions, this analysis not only is typically applied to fragmented or morphologically nondiagnostic bone fragments but also has been applied to a range of other archeological material culture, including parchments ( 52 – 54 ), ivory ( 55 ), eggshell ( 19 , 22 ), combs ( 56 ), and leather objects ( 57 ).…”

“…( 127 ) analyzed an osseous ring from early Neolithic Denmark, revealing that the ring was made from locally available red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), an observation not possible from morphological analysis of the artifact alone. Where cold, arid, or oxygen-deprived environments have permitted exceptional organic survival, paleoproteomics has also been applied to understand manufacturing of clothing, garments, and textiles such as leather and skin garments ( 57 , 128 , 129 ), woolen textiles, and other fibers ( 130 – 132 ) and silks ( 133 , 134 ). Other forms of adornment have also been explored using proteomic approaches, in contexts where such objects survive.…”