Background:
Frankie Tait is a biomolecular archaeologist with an interest in using palaeoproteomic techniques to analyse prehistoric bone fragments. She is currently a PhD student in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Reading within the COEXIST project, under the supervision of Dr. Karen Ruebens, Dr. Frido Welker (Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen) and Dr. Helen Fewlass (University of Bristol). Her research incorporates her laboratory experience working with ancient proteins for Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry and shotgun sequencing.
Frankie’s academic background includes a BSc in Forensic Science with her dissertation studying the taphonomic effect of freeze-thaw weathering on the surface of lamb tibiae. She then went on to work as a forensic laboratory scientist, gaining invaluable experience with biomolecular techniques. After this, Frankie worked in the wet lab at The Francis Crick Institute, sampling highly degraded skeletal material, and extracting ancient proteins and DNA for sequencing.
PhD project: Maximising the potential of fragmented bone to gain new insights into the coexistence of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Central and Southeast Europe.
While studies of ancient DNA have been revolutionary in demonstrating we interbred with Neanderthals, archaeological evidence for their coexistence remains sparse. Recent discoveries show that early groups of Homo sapiens already arrived in Germany, Bulgaria and Czechia more than 47,000 years ago. These findings raise fundamental questions concerning current models on the timing and extent of coexistence between late Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, suggesting a potential overlap in Central and Southeast Europe for several millennia. The associated faunal assemblages are dominated by small non-diagnostic bone fragments and for 70-90% of these we do not know what type of animal (or human) they belonged to. However, the last decade has seen fundamental advances in archaeological science, including in biomolecular archaeology, which can now be applied broadly to fragmented bone. The aim of this PhD is to fully unlock novel biological, chronological and behavioural data from small pieces of archaeological bone and establish a new regional chronological framework to better understand human presence across the study area.
This project contains three major components,:
1) Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) uses variations in collagen peptides and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to taxonomically identify archaeological bone fragments.
2) Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) screening to assess collagen preservation in ancient bone, alongside training in the pretreatment of bone for radiocarbon dating and synthesis of the chronological data.
3) Further training in proteomic methods at the Globe Institute, University of Copenhagenusing LC-MS/MS, which can be applied to any hominin specimens discovered.
The multi-disciplinary supervisory team will consist of Dr Karen Ruebens (University of Reading), Dr Helen Fewlass (University of Bristol) and Dr Frido Welker (University of Copenhagen). They will offer a broad range of specialist training, which Frankie will apply to bone material available for study as part of the COEXIST project.