Using bone technology and ZooMS to understand indigenous use of marine mammals at Iita, northwest Greenland

The site of Iita in northwestern Greenland had near-continual occupation from 1000 CE to the mid-20th century, which presents an unparalleled opportunity to examine diachronic changes in the use of marine mammals for food and raw material resources by Pre-Inuit (Late Dorset) and Inuit-Inughuit—two culturally distinct Indigenous groups. Limited wood in High Arctic environments necessitated the use of antler, bone, and ivory for tool making. Choices in the selection and processing of osseous material reflect changes in the way these two groups used the same resources. However, modification of osseous material during the tool-making process is often to such an extent that few diagnostic features remain for species identification. Here, we include Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify typically indeterminate pieces of manufacturing debris from preserved collagen. The minimally destructive extraction technique using polishing films had a 99% success rate. The results sugges..., One hundred and thirty specimens were chosen for peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF) to identify previously unknown osseous materials and their taxonomic origin. Identification of these specimens promotes a better understanding of osseous tool production. PMF involves the enzymatic digestion of proteins followed by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI) analysis of the resultant peptide mixture. In the case of bone and ivory, Type 1 collagen is the major constitutive protein, and for each mammalian source, the amino acid sequence of Type 1 collagen, albeit highly conserved, may have one or more amino acid substitutions. These substitutions change the mass of some peptides detected in the MALDI spectrum of the protein digest, which are then used as markers for specific mammalian sources. Markers from known reference materials are compared with those from unknown samples for identification. 
The ZooMS (PMF) method was a simplified procedure base..., Data is provided in two formats, .msd and .txt files. The text files are organized so that they correspond to the data in Supplementary Table 1. Further details can be found in the README.md file.
The .txt files can be accessed by various software programs to visualize the data. 
The .msd files can be viewed using the mMass software for those who have access. Alternatively, the .msd files can be read by using the packages MALDIQuant and MALDIQuantForeign in R. 
mMass Data Miner: an Open Source Alternative for Mass Spectrometric Data AnalysisStrohalm M, Hassman M, Košata B, Kodíček MRapid Commun Mass Spec 22 (6), 905-908 (2008)DOI: 10.1002/rcm.3444