Tetracycline in Prehistory - Take 2 beers & call me in the morning

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A few citations if anyone's interested in naturally occuring tetracycline in prehistory: Tetracycline is an antibiotic chemical that is produced by fungi living on badly-stored grain. If ingested with bread made from the grain, it labels microstructures in the bones (osteons)

and can be detected by fluorescence microscopy. Domesticated animals are typically fed grasses and grains which contained tetracycline, and which appears as fluorescent rings in their bones. We can distinguish these from wild animals, and thus determine when domestication occurred. With Hesse (Penn State U.) we are tracing origins of domestication in the Near East. J. Rosenfeld (Pathology, McMaster) is using HPLC to identify tetracycline derivatives in ancient bone. http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/geo/faculty/emeriti/schwarcz/research/index.html Tetracycline in Prehistory Bassett, E., M. , G. J. Armelagos, D. , and A. Villanueva. (1980) Tetracycline Labeled Human Bone from Prehistoric Sudanese Nubia (A.D. 350). Science 209:1532-1534. PDF , Margaret and J. Armelagos. (1982) Naturally Occurring Antibiotics and Human Health. In The Anthropology of Medicine.

Lola Romanuuci-Ross, E. Moerman and ce R. Tancredi, eds. Pp. 221-231. South Hadley, MA: Praeger-J.F. Bergin Publishers , Margaret and J. Armelagos. (1991) Naturally Occurring Antibiotics and Human Health. The Anthropology of Medicine. Second edition. Lola Romanuuci-Ross, E. Moerman and ce R. Tancredi, eds. Pp. 219-229. New York: Bergin and Garvey Publishers. Armelagos, J. (2000) Take two beers and call me in the morning [or: …in 1500 years] Ancient Nubians had a way with antibiotics. Natural History 109 (4):50-53. Armelagos, J., Kristi Kohlbacher, Kristy R. ,

Cook, and Karfield-Daugherty. (2001) Tetracycline Consumption in Prehistory. InTetracyclines in Biology, Chemistry and Medicine. M. , W. Hillen, and R.A. Greenwald, eds. Pp. 217-235. Basil: Birkhauser Verlag AG. http://www.anthropology.emory.edu/FACULTY/ANTGA/Web%20Site/Pages/Tetracycline%20in%20Prehistory.htm.htm Paleopathology Armelagos, J., Kristi Kohlbacher, Kristy R. , Cook, and Karfield-Daugherty. (2001) Tetracycline Consumption in Prehistory. In Tetracyclines in Biology, Chemistry and Medicine. M. , W. Hillen, and R.A. Greenwald, eds. Pp. 217-235. Basil: Birkhauser Verlag AG.Bassett, E., M. , G. J. Armelagos, D. , and A. Villanueva. (1980) Tetracycline Labeled Human Bone from Prehistoric Sudanese Nubia (A.D. 350). Science 209:1532-1534. , Margaret and J. Armelagos. (1988) An Example of In Vivo Tetracycline Labeling: Reply to Piepenbrink.

Journal of Archaeological Science 15: 595-601. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:pTIgGbTZqV0J:www.anthropology.emory.edu/FACULTY/ANTGA/Web%2520Site/Pages/Tetracycline%2520in%2520Prehistory.htm.htm+prehistoric+tetracycline & hl=en & gl=us & ct=clnk & cd=5