Direct digestion of model bone points for minimally destructive paleoproteomic taxonomic determination

This study evaluates a minimally destructive direct tryptic digestion protocol for paleoproteomic analysis of bone tools recovered from archaeological contexts. Motivated by interest from Indigenous North American communities following prior identification of human bone in bone points, we tested the method on model tools made from black bear, caribou, cougar, moose, and white-tailed deer. We found that the protocol does not induce gross scale damage, but can result in microscale chipping and possibly enzymatic smoothing. We used the Species by Proteome Investigation (SPIN) method to identify the model bone points and found that the combined direct digestion and SPIN method correctly placed all five species in their representative taxonomic classification when moose and caribou were included in the SPIN database. The direct digestion protocol combined with the SPIN taxonomic identification tool is an ideal workflow for analysis of historical and archaeological points for repatriation and recovery of cultural knowledge.