Parchments such as this 14th century archbishop’s register hold clues to ancient DNA of animals. Photograph: By permission of the Borthwick Institute for Archives 
 
 Documents similar to the Book of Kells and other ancient parchments may soon reveal more secrets. 
 
 Scientists at Trinity College Dublin and the University of York are collaborating on a study to prove they can extract genetic material from centuries-old writing materials made from animal skin. 
 
 “This is part of a quite big project for which I received funding from the European Research Council, ” said Dan Bradley, professor of population genetics at Trinity College Dublin. 
 
 The main project involves trying to recover ancient DNA extracted from the bones of cattle, sheep and goats who died thousands of years ago. The idea is to map out the genetic changes that have taken place in these animals over the past 10,000 years. 
 
 He said it was very difficult to get good DNA from old bones exposed to the elements. 
 
 “We figured that one source for DNA from these animals would be parchment, because it is made from animal skins. ” 
 
 He linked up with Prof Matthew Collins at the University of York and postdoctoral researcher Dr Matthew Teasdale at Trinity, and the team has published the results in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. ||||| The new technique of analyzing DNA found in ancient parchments can shine a focused light on the development of agriculture across the centuries 
 
 Dublin, IRELAND Monday December 8th, 2014 - Millions of documents stored in archives could provide scientists with the key to tracing agricultural development across the centuries, according to new research completed at Trinity College Dublin and the University of York. 
 
 Amazingly, thanks to increasingly progressive genetic sequencing techniques, the all-important historical tales these documents tell are no longer confined to their texts; now, vital information also comes from the DNA of the parchment on which they are written. 
 
 Researchers used these state-of-the-art scientific techniques to extract ancient DNA and protein from tiny samples of parchment from documents from the late 17th and late 18th centuries. The resulting information enabled them to establish the type of animals from which the parchment was made, which, when compared to genomes of their modern equivalents, provides key information as to how agricultural expansion shaped the genetic diversity of these animals. 
 
 This information therefore gives the scientists an unrivalled resource to analyse the development of livestock husbandry across the centuries. The research has just been published in the international, peer-reviewed journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 
 
 Professor of Population Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, Daniel Bradley, said: "This pilot project suggests that parchments are an amazing resource for genetic studies that consider agricultural development over the centuries. There must be millions stored away in libraries, archives, solicitors' offices and even in our own attics. After all, parchment was the writing material of choice for thousands of years, going back to the Dead Sea Scrolls." 
 
 He added: "Wool was essentially the oil of times gone by, so knowing how human change affected the genetics of sheep through the ages can tell us a huge amount about how agricultural practices evolved." 
 
 To conduct their research, geneticists at Trinity extracted DNA from two tiny (2x2cm) samples of parchment provided by the University of York's Borthwick Institute for Archives. Meanwhile, researchers in the Centre for Excellence in Mass Spectrometry at York extracted collagen (protein) from the same parchment samples. 
 
 The first sample showed a strong affinity with northern Britain, specifically the region in which black-faced breeds such as Swaledale, Rough Fell and Scottish Blackface are common, whereas the second sample showed a closer affinity with the Midlands and southern Britain where the livestock Improvements of the later 18th century were most active. 
 
 If other parchments show similar levels of DNA content, resulting sequencing could provide insights into the breeding history of livestock - particularly sheep - before, during and after the agricultural improvements of the 18th century that led to the emergence of regional breeds of sheep in Britain. 
 
 Professor Matthew Collins, of the Department of Archaeology at York, who heads the University's BioArCh research centre, said: "We believe the two specimens derive from an unimproved northern hill-sheep typical in Yorkshire in the 17th century, and from a sheep derived from the 'improved' flocks, such as those bred in the Midlands by Robert Bakewell, which were spreading through England in the 18th century. We want to understand the history of agriculture in these islands over the last 1,000 years and, with this breath-taking resource, we can." 
 
 ### 
 
 The research was funded by a grant from the European Research Council. The paper can be viewed here after embargo: http://rstb. royalsocietypublishing. org/ content/ 370/ 1660. toc 
 
 Media Contact: 
 
 Daniel Bradley, Professor of Population Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, at dbradley@tcd.ie, or Tel: +353-87-207-9451 
 
 Thomas Deane, Press Officer for the Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science, Trinity College Dublin, at deaneth@tcd.ie, or Tel: +353-1-896-4685 
 
 Matthew Collins, Professor of Archaeology, University of York, at matthew.collins@york.ac.uk, or Tel: +44-7955-888101 
 
 David Garner, Head of Media Relations, University of York, at david.garner@york.ac.uk or Tel: +44-1904-322153 
 
 Additional Notes to Editor 
 
 Parchment a Huge Reservoir of DNA Information 
 
 Before the mass production of paper, parchment was the major medium for legal documents and until the widespread adoption of typewriters, they were a clerk's preferred medium for many formal legal documents and records. 
 
 Parchment has a number of properties that make it compelling material for DNA extraction and analysis. Parchments are made from the skins of domestic animals, particularly livestock, and their manufacture results in robust artefacts, which can survive intact for many centuries. 
 
 Secondly, they are abundant and because of their enduring legal value they have generally been carefully managed. In the 20th century, this has included protecting them from both high temperatures and fluctuating humidity. 
 
 Thirdly, unlike bone remains, of which only a small percentage have been excavated, parchments are above ground, archived and in the case of legal documents, directly related to specific dates - a level of resolution largely unachievable with any other historic DNA source. Even undated documents can be dated palaeographically to a resolution better and more cheaply than radiocarbon dating. 
 
 About Trinity College Dublin 
 
 Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592 is Ireland's oldest university and today has a vibrant community of 17,000 students. It is recognised internationally as Ireland's premier university. Cutting-edge research, technology and innovation places the university at the forefront of higher education in Ireland and globally. 
 
 It encompasses all major academic disciplines, and is committed to world-class teaching and research across the range of disciplines in the arts, humanities, engineering, science, social and health sciences. 
 
 Trinity is Ireland's leading university across all international rankings, and was ranked 61st globally in 2013 QS World University Rankings 
 
 http://www. tcd. ie . 
 
 ** Note there is video available here: http://youtu. be/ f0e-rmri89M ** ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was: 
 
 - Slash pages from every domain on the web: 
 
 
 
 
 
 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links) 
 
 
 
 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain 
 
 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph
– Plenty of historical knowledge comes from writings on parchment—but now, researchers are learning about the past using the parchment itself. DNA analysis of the writing surface is revealing genetic information about the animals used to make it, and how their genomes differ from similar animals today, according to research published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. "Wool was essentially the oil of times gone by, so knowing how human change affected the genetics of sheep through the ages can tell us a huge amount about how agricultural practices evolved," says a researcher. Whereas bone DNA from the animals is hard to find, he tells the Irish Times, "we figured that one source for DNA from these animals would be parchment, because it is made from animal skins." Teams in Ireland and the UK pulled samples of DNA and protein from small pieces of parchment; they found that samples from different pieces of parchment showed similarity to different breeds of sheep. They're hoping that further study will show how the animals were bred, especially around the 18th century, which saw big changes in agriculture. There's plenty of the stuff around to investigate: "After all, parchment was the writing material of choice for thousands of years, going back to the Dead Sea Scrolls," the expert notes. (Researchers recently decoded a "magical codex" of ancient spells.)