Stonehenge forum 180 room
Image by jimit
close
more_vert

Is there a method to accurately test for the presence of ancient amino acids in soil?

I know it can be done with residues of foodstuffs from pots etc, where the proteins have been preserved in a ceramic matrix, protected from the elements, but it seems like a very long shot to hope that even if the ground around stonehenge had been covered in wheat for centuries, that enough identifiable protein would have survived in a form that would make it disctinct from the levels of amino acids you'd find anyway as a result of the grass that's been there for such a long time.

Say there is a method of identifying the ratios of a.a.'s in the soil, and that there is a particular a.a. that is present in higher proportions in wheat than in ordinary grass (e.g. glutamic acid, from all the gluten in the wheat). In the (unlikely imho) event that you found evidence that there's more glutamic acid around the stones, you'd have no way of proving it was because of people grinding wheat. It could have come from all the glutamic residue left over from the bio-fuel used to power the UFOs when they were taking off. You'd have to be looking for particular peptide sequences that map onto the wheat genome, and the chances of polypeptides surviving will be even lower than for individual amino acids. I reckon that in the environment of Wiltshire soil, the bacteria and the elements would have long ago trashed any biological molecules. I could be totally wrong like.

Would you not be better off trying to get people to sift through the soil for remains of husks or somesuch?

Hob wrote:
Is there a method to accurately test for the presence of ancient amino acids in soil?

I know it can be done with residues of foodstuffs from pots etc, where the proteins have been preserved in a ceramic matrix, protected from the elements, but it seems like a very long shot to hope that even if the ground around stonehenge had been covered in wheat for centuries, that enough identifiable protein would have survived in a form that would make it disctinct from the levels of amino acids you'd find anyway as a result of the grass that's been there for such a long time.

Say there is a method of identifying the ratios of a.a.'s in the soil, and that there is a particular a.a. that is present in higher proportions in wheat than in ordinary grass (e.g. glutamic acid, from all the gluten in the wheat). In the (unlikely imho) event that you found evidence that there's more glutamic acid around the stones, you'd have no way of proving it was because of people grinding wheat. It could have come from all the glutamic residue left over from the bio-fuel used to power the UFOs when they were taking off. You'd have to be looking for particular peptide sequences that map onto the wheat genome, and the chances of polypeptides surviving will be even lower than for individual amino acids. I reckon that in the environment of Wiltshire soil, the bacteria and the elements would have long ago trashed any biological molecules. I could be totally wrong like.

Would you not be better off trying to get people to sift through the soil for remains of husks or somesuch?

hob, i have just noticed that i have missed a bunch of posts. i am trying to figure out why.

your post sounds like you know quite a lot about this. i definately want to discuss this topic more. i am aware that today pottery fargments are the best source for wheat residue. what i am ASSUMING is that in the deep soil at stonehenge a concentration of wheat proteins, lipids, and or other residue must be detectable by some means.

i am not a scientist in that area and can't understand all the ins and outs of these tests. i know that there are radio isotope imaging, chemical analysis methods, and much more. i am sure that some test could be devised either with current methods or new ones in the future.

pot shards used to be scrubbed clean of all residue just a few years ago before anyone knew you could test for grain at all. so i have hopes that someone like yourself or other researchers will find a test that would work for this.

i must answer other old posts that i have missed now.
clyde