Researchers have recovered common eland protein from a 60,000-year-old red ochre layer at Klipdrift Shelter in South Africa, offering direct organic evidence of early human material practices during the Middle Stone Age.
Tracing Ancient Proteins in Coastal Sediments
The discovery emerged from archived sediment samples taken from a flat surface spanning over one meter long, roughly 40 centimeters wide, and up to one centimeter thick within the Howiesons Poort layers. The site sits inside coastal cliffs in the De Hoop Nature Reserve. Specialists view the application of ochre as an indicator of advanced human conduct, given that populations utilized the mineral dust for both utilitarian and ritual functions.
Historical documentation concerning southern African societies indicates that ground ochre was frequently blended with organic substances, several of which originated from proteins. Finding such proteins at ancient sites is rare, because few traces last this long. To isolate these traces, a collaborative team from Kyushu University, the University of Bergen, and the University of Copenhagen turned to palaeoproteomics. They extracted proteins directly from the archived soil sediments before running the samples through mass spectrometry.
Mass spectrometry fragments the recovered proteins and measures each piece. By checking these peptide fragments against large protein databases alongside a custom collagen set, the analysts pinned down the species of origin.
Matching Peptides to the Common Eland
Two separate sediment samples yielded clear, matching peptide chains. The short amino acid sequences pointed directly to type I collagen from the common eland, known scientifically as Taurotragus oryx, a large plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa.
This biochemical match establishes two possible stories. It is possible that individuals intentionally combined eland components into the ochre, or alternatively, they may have processed eland skins using the pigment at the location. The complex structure of the surface supports the first idea.
Because DNA seldom survives in warm African soils, ancient proteins serve as a more resilient molecular archive. Proteins resist breakdown better than DNA, so they stay readable in samples where DNA is long gone, allowing researchers to identify source animals in ancient soil layers long after bone or tooth fragments have vanished.
Future Tests Across Middle Stone Age Sites
The eland holds a special place in San mythology, which prompts broader questions regarding whether the animal carried symbolic weight as far back as the Middle Stone Age. However, the study’s authors note that one example is not enough to prove the eland carried ritual weight in the Middle Stone Age.
The research team plans to repeat the work at other sites of the same age. Expanding sediment testing will help determine whether similar protein residues appear consistently in other ancient ochre-rich deposits.
The findings were detailed in Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Zahra Haghighi, Takumi Tsutaya, Emma C. Velliky, Sally Armitage, Christopher Miller, Michelle Mackie, and Enrico Cappellini, marking a shift toward recovering animal identity directly from soil sediments rather than relying solely on preserved skeletal remains.
