A contribution to the problem of bioanthropological sex through proteomic analysis of dental enamel from human remains from the recent prehistory of the Northern Iberian Meseta

Abstract

Sex estimation of archaeological human remains has traditionally relied on bioanthropological analysis, assum-ing the uncertainty that this entails and the impossibility of knowing this significant variable in the case of sub-adult in-dividuals. The development of ancient DNA techniques al-lows this problem to be solved, but its requirements limit the generalization of its use. In this work, we evaluate the use of proteomic analysis, an alternative method based on the direct detection in dental enamel of dimorphic peptides of amelogenin using liquid chromatography-mass spectrom-etry, following a well-contrasted protocol. This first approx-imation is based on a collection of teeth, ten belonging to Cogotas I burials, and six ranging from the Chalcolithic to the Final Bronze Age, all of them from the Iberian Northern Subplateau. Proteomic analysis has allowed the sex determination of these individuals, including subadults (most of the sample). The results provide reliable information that enriches their cultural assessment and opens the way to a deeper understanding of gender and its implications. This essay has also taken into account the controversy, heated in many different disciplines, on the sex-gender relationship and the non-binary nature of both, issues that gravitate on osteological and archaeometric analyses ‒qualified even as performative acts‒, so, after assessing this debate, the decision to use this analysis technique is justified.