The search of the perfect ancient biomarker is a great challenge because it must be specific, no soluble in water and persistent. Different strategies can be carried out and different analytical techniques can be used to identify those biomarkers. In this case, on the one hand, the methodology carried out to obtain ancient biomarkers of prehistoric sheep-shearing practice using hyperspectral imaging, FT-IR and GC-MS will be described and on the other hand, the methodology to obtain specific animal biomarkers (sheep, goat, cow, horse and suids) in ancient sediments by means of high resolution mass spectrometry.

Dr. Asier Vallejo Ruiz is Associate Lecturer in the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and member of the MetaboloMIPs research group (Basque Government High Performance Group, G.V. 2022-2025) of the Faculty of Pharmacy in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He has developed several analytical methods to determine faecal biomarkers, ancient diet biomarkers, emerging contaminant among others and nowadays he is looking for new pastoral activity biomarkers using high resolution mass spectrometry.