Junior Group Leader
Dr Samantha Brown
Postdoctoral Researchers
Naihui Wang
Email: nwang @gea.mpg.de
Address: Kahlaische Str. 10, 07745 Jena
External links:
https://www.shh.mpg.de/employees/99431/25522
https://finderc.org/
I aim to use ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) to identify fragmented bones from key Paleolithic archaeological sites across Eurasia, such as Vogelherd, Lusakert and especially sites in China. To obtain more information from the morphologically unidentified materials, the research of important remains like hominin bones will then be completed through a combination of techniques, including radiocarbon dating, stable isotope, and ancient DNA analyses.
Publications
Naihui Wang, Samantha Brown, Peter Ditchfield, Sandra Hebestreit, Maxim Kozilikin, Sindy Luu, Oshan Wedage Stefano Grimaldi, Michael Chazan, Liora Horwitz Kolska, Matthew Spriggs, Glenn Summerhayes, Michael Shunkov, Kristine Korzow Richter, Katerina Douka. "Testing the efficacy and comparability of ZooMS protocols on archaeological bone." Journal of Proteomics 233 (2021): 104078.
Brown Samantha, Naihui Wang, Annette Oertle, Maxim B Kozlikin, Michael V Shunkov, Anatoly P Derevianko, Daniel Comeskey, Blair Jope-Street, Virginia L Harvey, Manasij Pal Chowdhury, Michael Buckley, Thomas Higham, Katerina Douka. "Zooarchaeology through the lens of collagen fingerprinting at Denisova Cave." Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (2021): 15457.
Yang Xu, Naihui Wang, Shizhu Gao, Chunxiang Li, Pengcheng Ma, Shasha Yang, Hai Jiang, Shoujin Shi, Yanhua Wu, Quanchao Zhang, Yinqiu Cui. "Solving the two-decades-old murder case through joint application of ZooMS and ancient DNA approaches." International Journal of Legal Medicine 137, no. 2 (2023): 319-327.
Naihui Wang, Xu Yang, Zhuowei Tang, Cunding He, Xin Hu, Yinqiu Cui, Katerina Douka. "Large-scale application of palaeoproteomics (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry; ZooMS) in two Palaeolithic faunal assemblages from China." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290, no. 2009 (2023): 20231129
Presentations
2023 | Workshop “Integrating ZooMS and zooarchaeology”, University of Kent, UK |
2022 | Poster “New human fossils and Occupation history of Vogelherd Cave revealed by Multi-analytical approaches”. European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) 2022 meeting. |
2021 | Presentation “Preliminary ZooMS application on Paleolithic sites in East Asia” The 10th meeting of Asian Paleolithic Association, Zhengzhou, China |
2020 | Presentation “ZooMS as a new archaeological technique and its case studies”, Henan University, China |
2018 | Presentation, “The traditional distilling technique of maize spirit in Miao village”, The 13th National Symposium on Science History in China, Nanjing, China |
Fieldwork
2022 | Fieldwork at Hohle Fels, in the Lone Valley, Germany |
2021 | Lab collaboration on ZooMS, Jilin University, China |
2020 | Practical Palaeoproteomics Summer school, Copenhagen, Denmark |
2017 | Archaeological fieldwork at Neolithic Sunjia site, Xianyang, China. 1 month |
2016 | Summer school, Anthropological fieldwork in Wuling mountains, Jishou, China. 2 weeks |
2016 | Training of starch grain observation, Xiamen University, China |
2015 | Summer school, “History and Archaeology”, Sun Yat-Sen University, China |
2014 | Archaeological survey at sites along northern Silk Road, Xinjiang, China. 2 weeks |
PhD Candidates
Salma A. Ibrahim
I received my B.A. in Social and Behavioural Sciences (Concentrating in Cultural Anthropology) from the American University in Kuwait, and later moved to Germany where I completed my M.Sc. in Archaeological Sciences and Human Evolution at the University of Tübingen. My M.Sc. involved the spatio-temporal analysis of the susceptibility of dental microwear formation between deciduous and permanent molars of subadults from Abusir El-Meleq, Egypt and Tauberbischofsheim, Germany. Along with my M.Sc. studies, I was also simultaneously working as a laboratory assistant (HiWi) at the Palaeoproteomics Department at the University of Tübingen, where I developed a deep interest in Palaeoproteomics that extended well after my graduation. I am now currently a PhD candidate at the very same department, where I will be conducting ZooMS analysis and assessing for faunal preservation from several Middle to Upper Paleolithic sites in Greece as part of the Advanced ERC program, FIRSTSTEPS.
Email: salma.ibrahim@ifu.uni-tuebingen.de
Office Phone: 74698
Office Address: Room 707, Hauptgebäude, DG. Rümelinstr. 23
Nicole Nikolakopoulou
I completed my Master’s in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen, specialising in zooarchaeology with a focus on ZooMS analysis. My master's thesis explored the application of ZooMS on faunal remains from warm regions where biomolecular preservation is low. For my PhD project, I am employing an interdisciplinary approach that involves ZooMS, as well as faunal and paleoanthropological analyses, to better comprehend the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition at the site of Grotte de la Verpillière I in France, and to gain insight into the hominin presence during this crucial period. Given the site's extensive collection of fragmented and unidentifiable bone fragments, the application of ZooMS will play a major role in the exploration of the faunal composition of the site and in the identification of human remains.
Megan Saunders
I came to Tübingen's Archaeo- and Paleoproteomics Working Group from a classic zooarchaeology background thanks to my Master's thesis on recent and proposed biomolecular advances and their applications to zooarchaeological research. Coming into ZooMS with this perspective has led me to seek to find a solution to one of ZooMS's most common questions: How can we trust reported ZooMS ratios when the only quantification method used is NISP, and in some cases weight, given the known limitations and inherent biases with these methods which would be further compounded in a heavily fragmented assemblage? Therefore, I am currently working to develop, apply, and refine a quantification method that I have developed based on older established methods from traditional zooarchaeology.
I am currently applying this method to ZooMS-identified fragments from the Mousterian layers of Geißenklösterle and Hohlenstein-Stadel. The goal for these studies is to ultimately shed additional light on fragmentation patterns and hominin and carnivore behavior through study of surface modifications, fragment size, and the taxonomic abundances represented in the fragmentary assemblage. The method should also allow a comparison with the original zooarchaeological work, through which ZooMS will ideally be able to reveal additional information so far "hidden in plain sight".
Education:
B.A. in Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), 2019
M.Sc. in Zooarchaeology, University of York, 2022
Research Interests:
Paleoproteomics, zooarchaeology, hominin behavior and subsistence
Publications:
De Caro, Dalila, Megan A. Saunders, Brienna Eteson, Susan M. Mentzer, and Judith Beier. 2024. “Thirteenth annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution.” Evolutionary Anthropology: e22029. doi: 10.1002/evan.22029
Thompson, Nathan, Lameesah Ahmed, Taner B. Celebi, Zachary S. Coopee, Nikki Koll, Danielle Rubinstein, Megan A. Saunders, and Robert L. Anemone. 2020. “Digitization of the Nissen-Riesen Chimpanzee Radiological Growth Series.” Evolutionary Anthropology: 1-7. doi: 10.1002/evan.21836
Presentations:
Saunders, Megan. A, Luca Michaelis, Susanne C. Münzel, Keiko Kitagawa, Britt M. Starkovich, Salma Ibrahim, Nicholas J. Conard, and Samantha Brown. “Counting Fragments: A New Holistic Approach to Quantifying ZooMS-Identified Bone Fragments for Analysis.” Presented at 13th Annual European Society for the Study of Human Evolution Conference, University of Aarhus and Museum of Ancient Art, Aarhus, Denmark, September 2023. Poster. https://www.eshe.eu/pastmeeting/2023/
Saunders, Megan. A, Luca Michaelis, Susanne Münzel, Keiko Kitagawa, Britt Starkovich, Nicholas Conard, and Samantha Brown. “Counting Fragments: A New Holistic Approach to Quantifying ZooMS-Identified Bone Fragments for Analysis.” Talk presented at Postgraduate Zooarchaeology Forum (PZaF), University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia, May 2023. https://pzaf2023.ffzg.unizg.hr/
Saunders, Megan. A, Luca Michaelis, Susanne C. Münzel, Keiko Kitagawa, Britt M. Starkovich, Nicholas J. Conard, and Samantha Brown. 18-19 April 2023. “Counting Fragments: A New Holistic Approach to Quantifying ZooMS-Identified Bone Fragments for Analysis.” Talk presented at Integrating ZooMS and Zooarchaeology: methodological challenges and interpretive potentials workshop, University of Kent, Kent, United Kingdom, April 2023. www.palaeozooarch.com/workshops
Classes:
• Einführung in die Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie II: Archäobiologie (UFGAM_BA_2.3 // UFG-BA-08-1). Lecture. Sommer Semester 2024
• Osteologie IV – Archäozoologie (Ü) (BNWA_03b / PAL-10c-2). Practical. Sommer Semester 2023, 2024
• ZooMS and Zooarchaeology (ASHE 6g). Lecture and Seminar. Winter Semester 2022-2023, 2023-2024
• ZooMS and Zooarchaeology Lab. Block course. Winter Semester 2022-2023, 2023-2024
Email: megan.saunders @ifu.uni-tuebingen.de
Office Address: Room 707, Hauptgebäude, DG. Rümelinstr. 23
Fei Yang
Research project
My current project involves applying ZooMS and other palaeoproteomics methods to the highly fragmented faunal assemblage from Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Swabian Jura, Southwest Germany, with the aim of confirming and advancing our current knowledge of the area's taxonomic composition and its implications for human behaviour. I also examine bone collagen degradation patterns and investigate their relationships with various pre- and post-depositional modifications as well as different climatic and burial conditions. My objective is to broaden the range of information extracted from archaeological bone collagen data and to collaborate closely with zooarchaeologists to ensure comprehensive contextualization.
Education
July 2022-Present PhD student
Archaeo and Palaeoproteomics working group
Institute for Archaeological Sciences
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Nicholas J. Conard, Dr. Samantha Brown
2020-2021 Mphil Archaeological Science University of Cambridge
2017-2020 BA Archaeology University of Sheffield
Research interests
ZooMS
Proteomics
Zooarchaeology
Taphonomy
Palaeolithic archaeology
Human behaviour ecology
Scholarship
Faculty undergraduate Scholarship for Academic Achievement 2018-19
Faculty undergraduate Scholarship for Academic Achievement 2017-18
Student Researchers
Britta Van Tiel, BSc (Hons.) BA
I receieved my Bachelor's in Arts and Science (Hons) from the Australian National University in Canberra in 2020 majoring in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology. My research specifically focused on palaeodemographic processes of Norse populations in the North Atlantic and maternal mortality in ancient Southeast Asia.
As part of the research I am undertaking with Dr Brown I am investigating the application of digestive agents to produce unique peptide markers and as a research assistant (HiWi) for the team I am responsible for sampling osseous and dental material for further molecular analysis.
Shana Wernado, BA
I completed my Bachelor of Arts at the University of Tübingen in prehistoric and early historical archaeology and achaeology of the Middle Ages and scientific archaeology. My bachelor thesis dealt with the ZooMS analysis of Copper Age bone jewelry from Banat, Romania.
In my current master thesis I am using ZooMS to investigate the faunal remains of a domestic context of a Neolithic Starčevo site in southern Serbia in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the Neolithization process and lifestyles in the Balkans.
Additionally, I am a Student assistant in the lab and involved with all aspects of protein extraction and data Analysis.