Faecal sterols and bile acids in faeces of wild animals as a reference dataset for archaeological studies

Raw data for the article:Gryczewska, N., Sulwiński, M., Chibowski, P., Krajcarz, M. T., Zegarek, M., Kot, M., Pereswiet‑Soltan, A., Szymczak, K., & Suska‑Malawska, M. 2025. Applying sterols and bile acids as biomarkers for identifying human versus wild animals’ faecal traces in cave sediments at archaeological sites. Archaeometry 67(4): 1022–1039. https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.13067The dataset consists of nine Excel files with raw data from GC MC analysis. The methodology of the extraction, clean-up, derivatization and GC analysis is described in detail in the cited article. The data is related to the project "Chemical traces of human activity in caves of Polish Jura. Use of selected lipid biomarkers analysis and PAHs analysis in sediments from archaeological sites" (financed by NCN, Poland, no. 2021/41/N/HS3/02369), which aimed at exploring possibilities and limitations in studying human presence and activity in caves in the past through sediment analyses.Based on the raw results presented here, a reference database of faecal profiles in wild animals was created. The aim of the database was first to assess its similarity with human faecal profiles known from the literature, and then assess commonly used methods of recognizing the source of faecal matter based on the analysis of faecal sterols and bile acids. Additionally, four test samples from archaeological sites were analysed (with raw results included in the files) to assess the presence of the studied compounds in the sediment samples from cave site and feasibility of further studies. The analysis of the data in this dataset allowed for proposing an approach for studying cave sediments from archaeological sites to recognize traces of humans faecal matter.