1 Archaeology, archaeological science and microarchaeology 2 Information embedded in the microscopic record 3 Completeness of the archaeological record 4 Common mineral components of the archaeological record 5 Biological materials: bones and teeth 6 Biological materials: phytoliths, diatoms, eggshells, otoliths and mollusk shells 7 Reconstructing pyrotechnological processes 8 Biological molecules and macromolecules: protected niches 9 Ethnoarchaeology of the microscopic record: learning from the present 10 Absolute dating: assessing the quality of a date 11 Reading the microscopic record on-site 12 Infrared spectroscopy in archaeology

Microarchaeology: Beyond the Visible Archaeological Record

Sulphur isotopic variation in ancient bone collagen from Europe: implications for human palaeodiet, residence mobility, and modern pollutant studies

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Diagenesis of archaeological bone and tooth

We used high-sensitivity, high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to shotgun sequence ancient protein remains extracted from a 43 000 year old woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) bone preserved in the Siberian permafrost. For the first time, 126 unique protein accessions, mostly low-abundance extracellular matrix and plasma proteins, were confidently identified by solid molecular evidence. Among the best characterized was the carrier protein serum albumin, presenting two single amino acid substitutions compared to extant African (Loxodonta africana) and Indian (Elephas maximus) elephants. Strong evidence was observed of amino acid modifications due to post-mortem hydrolytic and oxidative damage. A consistent subset of this permafrost bone proteome was also identified in more recent Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) samples from temperate latitudes, extending the potential of the approach described beyond subpolar environments. Mass spectrometry-based ancient protein sequencing offers new perspecti...

Proteomic analysis of a pleistocene mammoth femur reveals more than one hundred ancient bone proteins.

New parameters for the characterization of diagenetic alterations and heat-induced changes of fossil bone mineral using Fourier transform infrared spectrometry

Bone remains play an important role in archaeology as a source of information about the past. However, they alter over time. Alteration occurs at all scales from the macroscopic to nanoscopic level. The evaluation of information extracted on palaeodiets, ages and palaeoclimates from their chemical and isotopic composition requires the study of diagenetic modifications by means of different complementary analytical methods. Diagenetic parameters that quantify the post-mortem alteration of bone are bone histology, porosity, protein content, crystallinity of bone apatite, carbonate content, enrichment and leaching of chemical species in general. The investigation of these features can be performed by a combination of complementary elemental and structural analyses (particle-induced x-ray emission, particle-induced γ-ray emission, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), electron microprobe, x-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with EDX), microscopic observations (optical, SEM, TEM) and porosity measurements.The study of animal bones from the Neolithic site of Bercy, France (4000 BC) from the same archaeological layer within different local depositional, hydrological and redox environments illustrates the possible information that can be extracted from the diagenetic study on the processes affecting the state of bone preservation. The main characteristic of the bone buried in the waterlogged zone is a high level of preservation of the organic matter and a low level of porosity inhibiting major structural or chemical modifications. The bone sample from the zone with a fluctuating hydrological regime shows a low level of organic matter and high porosity. Knowledge of the diagenetic patterns enables an estimation of the reliability of information obtained from bone analyses.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/14/9/312/pdf

A multi-analytical study of bone diagenesis: the Neolithic site of Bercy (Paris, France)

We have performed Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Particle Induced Gamma-ray Emission (PIGE) analyses with an external proton millibeam on archaeological bones in order to determine possible alteration processes in their burial environment (dissolution, uptake and diffusion of foreign ions). The PIXE method enables us to quantify the post-mortem alteration by determining the concentration profile of several trace elements like Al, Si, S, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and Sr in transverse bone sections, while that of fluorine is inferred from PIGE analysis. Examples of concentration profiles of archaeological bone cross sections from the Seine river site in Paris, Bercy (4000 B.C.), are shown.

Trace element composition of archaeological bones and post-mortem alteration in the burial environment

Diffusion in Archaeological Bone

In this paper we present fluorine analysis by transmission electron microscopy (TEM-EDX) and measurement of concentration profiles by nuclear reaction analysis with a proton beam (PIGE and microPIGE) on various archaeological bone and dentine material. Fluorine is present as trace element in modern bone and dentine (100–1000 ppm) whose mineral phase consists of a poorly crystalline hydroxylapatite (Ca10(PO4)6 − x(CO3)x(OH)2+x). During the burial time, archaeological bone and dentine accumulate F in the apatite structure. TEM-EDX can evidence fluorine accumulation on a very localised, nanometric scale if its concentration exceeds 1 wt.%. On the contrary, PIGE and microPIGE permit detection of fluorine with a high sensitivity (limit of detection 30 ppm) on a microscopic or macroscopic level. Its spatial resolution can be of 10 µm, but is, however, insufficient to resolve the distribution of fluorine within the bone and dentine apatite nanocrystals. We show the complementarity of the information del...

Lidia Favre-Quattropani

Papers

A multi-analytical study of bone diagenesis: the Neolithic site of Bercy (Paris, France)

Trace element composition of archaeological bones and post-mortem alteration in the burial environment

Diffusion in Archaeological Bone

Fluorine analysis in biogenic and geological apatite by analytical transmission electron microscopy and nuclear reaction analysis