Mysterious manor court rolls-unlocking agricultural and health secrets through the DNA based analysis of parchment skins [the following is a proposal for the manuscript preparation category of the…

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a $250,000 Project Grant to North Carolina State University (NC State) for the "Mysterious Manor Court Rolls-Unlocking Agricultural and Health Secrets through the DNA Based Analysis of Parchment Skins" project. This 3-year collaborative research initiative, which runs from May 2025 to April 2028, will utilize recently developed non-destructive sampling techniques to extract and analyze the DNA found in parchment manor court rolls and probate itineraries from three partner institutions: the Norfolk Record Office, the Harvard University Law Library, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. The goal of this CFDA 45.161 Promotion of the Humanities Research program grant is to advance humanistic knowledge and understanding by unlocking the agricultural and health-related secrets hidden within these historical parchment documents through DNA-based analysis.

Mysterious manor court rolls-unlocking agricultural and health secrets through the DNA based analysis of parchment skins [the following is a proposal for the manuscript preparation category of the NEH?s collaborative research funding opportunity. We propose to use recently developed techniques of non-destructive sampling to extract and analyze the DNA found in parchment manor court rolls and probate itineraries from three partner institutions: the norfolk record office, the harvard university law library, and the folger shakespeare library.]