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Journal ArticleDOI

Archaeological Wood: Properties, Chemistry, and Preservation

14 Aug 1990-ChemInform (Wiley)-Vol. 21, Iss: 33
About: This article is published in ChemInform.The article was published on 1990-08-14. It has received 109 citations till now.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an overview is given on the amount of litter input, the proportion of various plant parts and their distribution (below-ground/above-ground), as well as the relative proportion of different plant tissues.
Abstract: Plant litter and the microbial biomass are the major parent materials for soil organic matter (SOM) formation Plant litter is composed of complex mixtures of organic components, mainly polysaccharides and lignin, but also aliphatic biopolymers and tannins The composition and relative abundance of these components vary widely among plant species and tissue type Whereas some components, such as lignin, are exclusively found in plant residues, specific products are formed by microorganisms, eg amino sugars A wide variety of chemical methods is available for characterizing the chemical composition of these materials, especially the chemolytic methods, which determine individual degradation products and solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy, that gives an overview of the total organic chemical composition of the litter material With the development of these techniques, an increasing number of studies are being carried out to investigate the changes during decay and the formation of humic substances An overview is given on the amount of litter input, the proportion of various plant parts and their distribution (below-ground/above-ground), as well as the relative proportion of the different plant tissues Major emphasis is on the organic chemical composition of the parent material for SOM formation and thus this paper provides information that will help to identify the changes occurring during biodegradation of plant litter in soils

1,547 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evidence is provided that wood decay fungi can effectively induce permeability changes in gymnospermous heartwood or can be applied to facilitate the identification of tree rings in diffuse porous wood of angiosperms.

407 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of wood degradation caused by fungi and bacteria can be found in this article, which describes specific degradation found in archaeological wood from a variety of different terrestrial and aquatic environments, including an 8th century BC tomb found in Tumulus MM at Gordion, Turkey; Anasazi great houses (1000 AD), waterlogged woods (100-200 BC) from the Goldcliff intertidal site, Wales, United Kingdom; and the late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck found off the coast of Turkey.

405 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the plant physiological and soil biochemical literature pertinent to the archaeological investigation of starch grains found as residues on artefacts and in archaeological sediments was presented in this paper, which indicated that an increased understanding of starch decomposition processes is necessary to accurately reconstruct both archaeological activities involving starchy plants and environmental change investigated through starch analysis.

218 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
21 Feb 2002-Nature
TL;DR: It is suggested that the oxidation of the reduced sulphur—which probably originated from the penetration of hydrogen sulphide into the timbers as they were exposed to the anoxic water—is being catalysed by iron species released from the completely corroded original iron bolts, as well as from those inserted after salvage.
Abstract: The seventeenth-century Swedish warship, Vasa, was recovered in good condition after 333 years in the cold brackish water of Stockholm harbour. After extensive treatment to stabilize and dry the ship's timbers1, the ship has been on display in the Vasa Museum since 1990. However, high acidity and a rapid spread of sulphate salts were recently observed on many wooden surfaces2, which threaten the continued preservation of the Vasa. Here we show that, in addition to concentrations of sulphate mostly on the surface of oak beams, elemental sulphur has accumulated within the beams (0.2–4 per cent by mass), and also sulphur compounds of intermediate oxidation states exist. The overall quantity of elemental sulphur could produce up to 5,000 kg of sulphuric acid when fully oxidized. We suggest that the oxidation of the reduced sulphur—which probably originated from the penetration of hydrogen sulphide into the timbers as they were exposed to the anoxic water—is being catalysed by iron species released from the completely corroded original iron bolts, as well as from those inserted after salvage. Treatments to arrest acid wood hydrolysis of the Vasa and other wooden marine-archaeological artefacts should therefore focus on the removal of sulphur and iron compounds.

177 citations