Border Cave Resin aDNA

Aim/rationale:

The purpose of this project is to further our understanding of hafting mastics, chewing gums and residue manufacture during the African Middle Stone Age. To accomplish this, we will sample residues and chewing gums from the southern African archaeological record and conduct state-of-the-art genetic analyses on them. We will investigate the genetic component of the plant, animal and other organic material found in the samples, to evaluate their origin. We will test the hypothesis that human aDNA can also be recovered from African chewing gums, as has been shown to be true for Scandinavian chewing gums.
We have the following objectives:
1. Investigate the potential for aDNA extraction from hafted lithic residues (including chewing gums) from southern African Middle Stone Age archaeological sites.
2. Decipher the components used in the adhesive recipes by pinpointing biological and plant material based on genetic data extraction. This will be an entirely new aspect of methodology as to date, mostly microscopy and a few chemical analyses have been used to identify these components.
3. Use recovered aDNA to investigate the genetic migration / movement of people on the landscape during the African Middle Stone Age.
4. Identify ancient proteins found within the samples and map the associated potential health effects they would have posed to the human populations at that time.