Development of Sample Pretreatment of Silk for Radiocarbon Dating

Abstract

We have developed sample pretreatments for silk for radiocarbon dating. Characteristics of silk under different types of pretreatment were investigated, as well as the behavior of dye and possible contaminants. We found that dye could be removed completely, together with all other foreign materials bigger than 1.2 μm, using a glass microfiber filter after decomposition with 6N HCl. The decomposed proteins were concentrated using Centriprep® ultrafiltration concentrators with 3 different molecular weight cut-offs. By taking a molecular weight fraction—which selects for secondary structures of silk protein—14C dating of silk samples can be made more reliable. This study confirms that uniformly fractured polypeptide chains of silk provide an appropriate fraction for 14C age dating to select silk protein against dye particles and undecomposed foreign contaminants.