Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.07.006
Title (Primary) Archaeological implications of the digestion of starches by soil bacteria: Interaction among starches leads to differential preservation
Author Hutschenreuther, A.; Watzke, J.; Schmidt, S.; Büdel, T.; Henry, A.G.
Source Titel Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Year 2017
Department ZELLTOX
Volume 15
Page From 95
Page To 108
Language englisch
UFZ wide themes RU3;
Abstract Soil bacteria damage and destroy starch granules in archaeological contexts, but most studies of this kind of damage report on pairings of a single bacterial species with starches from a single plant species. Here we report the results of experiments in which starch granules from multiple plants were digested by a community of soil bacteria. The damage patterns of this bacterial community generally match those for single bacterial strains, and vary among plant species. However, when the bacteria are exposed to a mixture of starches from different taxa, certain plants are digested in favor of others. This variation in digestion could lead to a bias in the starches represented in the archaeological record. The types of damage observed in this experiment are further compared against that observed on archaeological starches recovered from dental calculus and stone tools.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=19680
Hutschenreuther, A., Watzke, J., Schmidt, S., Büdel, T., Henry, A.G. (2017):
Archaeological implications of the digestion of starches by soil bacteria: Interaction among starches leads to differential preservation
J. Archaeol. Sci. Rep. 15 , 95 - 108 10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.07.006