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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Sur la piste des matériaux organiques grâce à la spectrométrie de masse

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Identifying the organic materials present, establishing their origin and degree of preservation, understanding their manufacturing process and their use, all of which require interdisciplinary studies involving closely specialists in materials and human sciences. In this very specific context, mass spectrometry has become a key tool to improve knowledge of past civilizations but also to better preserve and restore the discrete remains of archaeomaterials. The identification of diagnostic molecular markers of natural substances is now a recognized strategy for characterizing amorphous organic materials (fats, beeswaxes, vegetable substances such as resins and tars). New advances have also made it possible to characterize, in archaeological context, proteins, molecules of high molecular weight that mainly constitute furs, wools and feathers. Two examples will illustrate the challenge of these studies and also the informative potential provided by mass spectrometry: a plant adhesive in the cabochon of an Iron Age fibula, and very degraded materials near a sword and a scramasaxe from the early Middle Ages.