Amino acids on lithic tools

This is a reply to Paul Storch's query about amino acids on lithics.
Paul the main problem here is time.  What we could extract from
artifacts 10 years ago has changed so dramatically that it is hard
to say what the future will bring. Ever sensitive methods are being
developed.  If you look at August's issue of Cell you will see an
article by Krings, et. al. on sequencing of Neandertal mtDNA.  Some
of the authors of this article published a review of the field just
a year before saying that DNA could not be extracted from bone or
fossil material with diagenetic D/L ratios of the levels reported
for the sample they then published a year later.  This seems an
apparent contradiction, but it reflects the greater sensitivity of
the apparatus (although there is some question of the authenticity
of the results).  The person you should talk to is Thomas Loy who
has published a number of articles on extracting amino acids from
lithics and I believe some of these had been washed previously.

Niccolo Caldararo
Director and Chief Conservator
Conservation Art Service

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 11:51
                 Distributed: Tuesday, December 9, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-11-51-001
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