Acronym: DNADD
Collaborators: Carl Vangestel (JEMU-RBINS), Massimiliano Virgilio (JEMU-RMCA), Gontran Sonet (JEMU-RBINS), Fabienne Pigière (RBINS), Naomi Sykes (Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, UK), Nathalie Suarez-Gonzalez (Département d’ Histoire, Arts et Archéologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), Denis Henrard (Agence wallonne du Patrimoine, Liège, Belgium)
Year: 2018
Summary: The goal of this small project is to extract ancient DNA from a partial skeleton of a Cervidae discovered in a Roman context at Herstal (Liège) and confirm its species identification. Based on osteomorphological analysis, the skeleton has been attributed to the fallow deer (Dama dama), however, the species identification needs to be confirmed by a DNA analysis. Dama dama is from eastern Mediterranean and if individuals were imported in north-western Europe during the Roman period is still under debate.
Output:
- Peer-reviewed paper: The introduction of the European fallow deer to the northern provinces of the Roman Empire: a multi-proxy approach to the Herstal skeleton (Belgium), F. Pigière, D. Henrard, N. Sykes, N. Suarez-Gonzalez, G. Sonet, 2020, Antiquity, 94, 1501 – 1519.