Fungal stromata were recently discovered in association with charcoal and burnt soil aggregates during an archaeological survey in the Châtillon-sur-Seine forest massif. The wood and soil in the samples were dated to the medieval period (between 738 and 1411 AD). Light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy revealed that a few of the stromatal fragments still contained ascospores. Their macromorphological characters were described and secondary metabolite profiles were generated using high performance liquid chromatography with diode array and mass spectrometric detection (HPLC–DAD/MS). The combination of these two data lines then allowed species identification. Most of the fragments were assigned to Hypoxylon fragiforme, the type species of the Hypoxylaceae (Xylariales). Two further species whose stromata grew on the fossil charcoal could be tentatively identified as Jackrogersella cohaerens and (more tentatively) as Hypoxylon vogesiacum. These three species are still commonly encountered in the forests of Central Europe today. Furthermore, the HPLC-HRMS data of H. fragiforme suggested the presence of unknown azaphilone dimers and of further new pigments. These archaeological compounds were compared to fresh stromata of H. fragiforme collected in Germany and subjected to the same analytical protocol. While the major components in both samples were identified as the known mitorubrin type azaphilones and orsellinic acid, the chemical structures of seven novel complex azaphilone pigments, for which we propose the trivial names rutilins C-D and fragirubrins A-E, were elucidated using spectral methods (NMR and CD spectroscopy, high resolution mass spectrometry). It appears that these pigments had indeed persisted for millennia in the fossil stromata.

中文翻译：

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在塞纳河畔沙蒂永（勃艮第）的森林土壤中，古老的腐殖梭菌的碳化样品中的真菌化石和新型氮杂酮颜料的鉴定

最近在塞纳河畔沙蒂永森林地块进行考古调查时，发现了与木炭和烧过的土壤聚集体相关的真菌地层。样品中的木材和土壤可追溯至中世纪时期（公元738年至1411年）。光学显微镜和扫描电子显微镜显示，一些气孔碎片仍含有子囊孢子。描述了它们的宏观形态特征，并使用带有二极管阵列的高效液相色谱和质谱检测（HPLC-DAD / MS）生成了次级代谢产物图谱。然后，将这两个数据线组合在一起就可以进行物种识别。大部分片段被归类为Hypoxylon fragiforme，是hyxoxylaceae（Xylariales）的类型种类。可以将另外两个其地层生长在化石炭上的物种初步确定为Jackrogersella cohaerens，（更初步地）确定为Hypoxylon vogesiacum。这三种物种在当今中欧的森林中仍然很常见。此外，脆弱型嗜血杆菌的HPLC-HRMS数据表明存在未知的氮杂苯甲酮二聚体和其他新颜料。将这些考古化合物与脆弱类嗜血杆菌的新鲜地层进行了比较在德国收集并接受相同的分析规程。虽然两个样品中的主要成分均被确定为已知的线粒体型氮杂酚酮和奥数酸，但使用光谱方法（NMR和CD光谱法，高分辨率质谱法）。看来这些颜料确实在化石地层中已经存在了数千年。