Perspectives of using the Zooms technology for sex estimation of bisons by teeth anomel proteins

This article proposes to apply the method of zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry analysis (ZooMS) for establishing the sex of the Bovidae using the peptides extracted from teeth enamel. This method is based on the analysis of the preserved protein component of bone tissue. Analyzing dimorphic protein amelogenin which is a part of tooth enamel makes it possible to reveal the sex of the animal without damaging material evidence under study. Currently, scholars predominantly use ZooMS analysis for identifying the species of bone remains. While ZooMS analysis has already been successfully applied for establishing the sex of human remains, it has not been used for that purpose in zooarchaeological studies. Deliberate selection of species by ancient hunters can be observed at some archaeological sites, as it is the case with the Neanderthals of Chagyrskaya cave who predominantly hunted bisons. Establishing not only the species, but also the sex of bisons whose remains have been found at archaeological sites is of great interest since the sex of the animal prayed an important role for ancient hunters, determining the differences in sizes and weights of individual animals as well as corresponding differences in hunting difficulty andflavor of meat. The sex of the animals is crucial for reconstructing the hunting strategies followed by ancient humans. ZooMS analysis is not limited by chronological periods due to good preservation of amelogenin in tooth enamel. It is possible to apply the method proposed both to the material evidence of the Paleolithic sites and to more recent archaeological materials.