Investigation of Thermal Alteration of Dry Bone via Spectroscopic Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The initial status of bone prior to burning and thermal alteration influences the resultant chemical and structural composition, monitored in this study with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) attachment. Fresh, fully hydrated mammalian cortical bone and dry mammalian cortical bone, with organics partially to fully depleted, were burned in oxygen atmospheres to two temperatures (300°C and 700°C) to establish a referential collection of baselines for interpreting archaeological burnt bone (e.g., potential fire-using behaviors by hominins). Burning bones with depleted organics, particularly sun-bleached and heavily weathered bone, have spectroscopic similarities to bones burned at low temperatures (300°C). Interpreting the results of such analyses is challenging because it is difficult to identify the organic status prior to burning. Overall, this study suggests that the condition of bone used for experimental and zooarchaeological studies adds a dimension of uncertainty that must be accounted for when designing experimental protocols and adds new sources of variation to consider for interpretations of archaeological burnt bone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37424.0