Study of the diagenetic effects on ancient human skeletal remains from archaeological sites in piedmont

Author: Barbara Bolla ; Typology: Tesi di Laurea corso di studi in Scienza dei Materiali per i Beni Culturali

Licence: CreativeCommons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ; Year: 2014; Language: italiano

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Purpose of this work was the evaluation of the state of preservation of several ancient human skeletons through chemical analysis on the bones and their burial soil. In this study, small fragments of bone from Medieval and Late Antique skeletons collected from the archaeological sites of Barengo, Castelletto Cervo and Costigliole Saluzzo in Piedmont (Northern Italy) were analyzed. Quantitative analysis, carried out by ICP-OES, allowed to quantify the concentrations of Al, Ba, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Sr, Zn. The same analysis was performed on fragments of cortical bone and trabecular bone belonging to the same femur, in order to evaluate differences between the external and internal parts of the same skeletal element. Chemical elements were analysed also from the burial soils. An additional analysis was performed, where possible, on the soil attached to the bones, to verify potential exchanges between bone and soil. Qualitative analysis were carried out on bones, using attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy to evaluate the crystallinity index, the relative amount of collagen and carbonate. Raman spectroscopy analyses were performed on cortical and trabecular bone, to detect differences between samples. Soil pH was measured, due to its importance for the conservation of buried bones: analyses showed that the burial sites have an alkaline soil that preserved the skeletal remains fairly well. Thanks to this study, it can be demonstrated that the presence of heavy metals in bones derives from the soil. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that the treatment carried out before the analysis has a big influence on the results. Qualitatively, all the samples show a high crystallinity index, close to the values of fossilized bones; the values of the collagen indicate that this molecule is quite preserved in the bone.



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