Evaluating Collagen Pretreatment with XAD Resin

Summary

The presence of exogenous organic carbon is a major concern when radiocarbon dating bone. In particular, the analysis of bone that has undergone diagenesis can be frustrating because the process of humification may potentially introduce contaminant organic carbon. Diagenesis occurs during burial and results from a combination of two distinct processes: (1) reactions involving indigenous organic carbon, (2) the complexation of collagen with soil humic substances. The radiocarbon measurement of altered bone, then, affects the age of the bone and reflects the presence of the exogenous humic carbon. Because the influence of contamination on radiocarbon measurements is dependent on the age of the sample, removal of humic carbon, particularly for older samples, is a necessity for accurate measurement. Pretreatment methods, such as XAD treatment and single-amino acid radiocarbon dating, have been applied to eliminate contaminant carbon and provide a purified sample for dating. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of XAD for the removal of humics using a controlled study and present suggested modifications to the procedure.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22752