Combing through museum collections. A “museomic” application of ZooMS

A groundbreaking application of Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to Longobard-era osseous artifacts from the 'Musei Reali di Torino' reveals that while cervid bones were predominantly used for comb-making, the Longobards also opportunistically utilized bovine and equid bones. The study, which analyzed 37 specimens using MALDI-TOF-MS and nanoHPLC-tandem MS, found good biomolecular preservation even in heavily restored 19th-century artifacts. Among three sampling methods tested—invasive, eraser-based (eZooMS), and bag-based—the eraser method emerged as a non-invasive yet effective approach for routine museum conservation. The research underscores the potential of biomolecular techniques to reconstruct the complex biographies of museum objects and highlights the Longobards' preference for locally available resources, with no clear association between raw material and object typology or function, except for buttons.

Monticone, A., Panero, E., Heritier, E., Pergolizzi, B., Bello, F. D., Mecarelli, E., Boano, R., de Vingo, P., Codlin, M., Pessione, E., & Demarchi, B. (2024). Combing through museum collections. A “museomic” application of ZooMS. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 34(2). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3295