Achaeometrical Research in Hungary II., 1988

PROSPECTING and DATING - János CSAPÓ - Zsuzsanna CSAPÓ-KISS - János CSAPÓ JR.: How the amino acids and amino acid racemization can be used and with what limits for age determination of fossil materials in archaeometry

are the result of a single analysis. In the case of carpet samples, we had adequate amounts of sample and the table shows the average result of duplicate determinations. Table 14 Amino acid composition of wool carpets and wool threads of copt textiles of different ages Number of the samples Age of the samples (years) Amino acids (g amino acid/100 g protein) Number of the samples Age of the samples (years) Cysteic acid Cystine Cysteic acid/Cys Methionine Tyrosine 1.1. 1750 4.39 0.97 4.48 0.00 0.00 1.2. 1600 4.30 1.03 4.17 0.00 0.00 1.3. 1600 4.27 1.21 3.53 0.02 0.15 1.4. 1600 4.33 1.10 3.93 0.02 0.20 1.5. 1600 4.01 1.19 3.37 0.01 0.20 1.6. 1550 3.99 1.22 3.27 0.03 0.30 1.7. 1550 3.97 1.33 2.98 0.03 0.38 1.8. 1550 3.82 1.19 3.21 0.02 0.54 1.9. 1500 3.93 1.22 3.22 0.03 0.53 1.10. 1400 3.81 1.53 2.49 0.03 0.75 1.11. 1400 3.54 1.50 2.36 0.04 0.77 1.12. 1400 3.72 1.54 2.42 0.04 0.73 1.13. 1400 3.65 1.43 2.55 0.05 0.89 1.14. 1050 3.12 1.78 1.75 0.15 1.33 1.15. 550 1.87 3.12 0.60 0.21 2.11 1.16. 400 1.49 3.21 0.46 0.28 2.32 2.19. 400 1.53 3.43 0.45 0.27 2.29 2.20. 300 1.32 3.82 0.35 0.31 2.31 2.21. 250 1.21 3.79 0.32 0.29 2.43 2.22. 170 1.19 4.15 0.29 0.33 2.37 1.17. 140 1.22 4.24 0.29 0.38 2.85 2.23. 128 1.03 4.20 0.25 0.40 2.59 2.24. 120 0.88 5.19 0.17 0.39 2.83 1.18. unknown 1.92 3.24 0.59 0.24 1.99 2.25. unknown 1.44 3.91 0.37 0.34 2.38 Data in Table 14 show that as age increased, cysteic acid content increased and cystine content decreased (Fig 5). When compared with contemporary wool, the cysteic acid contents were approximately 10, 20 and 30 times as great at 500, 1000 and 1700 years, respectively. Cystine content decreased to less than 50% in 120-140 years, to 35% in 500 years and to 10% in 1600-1700 years. The differences are even greater when expressed as a ratio of cysteic acid/cystine. The 1600-1700-year-old samples had a ratio more than 100 times as great as that of modern carpets. Both methionine and tyrosine contents decreased with age (Fig 6). In the 1750-yearold wool fibre and one of the 1600-year-old wool fibres, we were unable to detect the 47