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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Ivory artefacts’ origins revealed by telltale peptides

The family, genus or even species of animal that supplied the materials for a famed museum’s objects could be identified with minimal damage to the items.
Figurine or amulet of a hippo on a sled, Early Dynastic Period, ca. 2960–2649 B.C.

Peptide analysis shows that an ancient Egyptian figurine of a hippo is made of hippo ivory. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ivory has long been used to make tools, jewellery and other objects. Now scientists have developed a minimally invasive technique to identify the specific peptides in ancient ivory artefacts, revealing the animals that provided the source material1.

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Nature 626, 237 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00247-w

References

  1. Gilbert, C. et al. Sci Adv. 4, eadi9028 (2024).

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