Burial ideal

The depth of burial should be that which will be occupied by the structure of interest. Specimens to be compared should be buried at the same depth. Ideally, tests for structures, such as piling, that will extend through several horizons would require the use of test specimens long enough to extend to the same depth. 

GC and GC-MS (see Chapter 2), are ideal for the separation and characterization of individual molecular species. Characterization generally relies on the principle of chemotaxonomy, where the presence of a specific compound or distribution of compounds in the ancient sample is matched with its presence in a contemporary authentic substance. The use of such 6molecular markers is not without its problems, since many compounds are widely distributed in a range of materials, and the composition of ancient samples may have been altered significantly during preparation, use and subsequent burial. Other spectroscopic techniques offer valuable complementary information. For example, infrared (IR) spectroscopy and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy have also been applied. 

Figure 7.37. Idealized burial diagenetic evolution of a polymineralic assemblage of carbonate minerals as they pass through meteoric diagenetic zones. (After James and Choquette, 1984.)...

Thallium salts have some of the characteristics of the ideal poison, being tasteless and colourless, but detection of thallium, for example in urine, is straightforward and can occur even two months after a single dose. The metal remains in the body after death and is not destroyed or lost by burial or cremation. 

The escape of the trace elements back to the water column could be prevented by burial, thereby preserving a sediment record. However, such fossilized enrichments might be difficult to detect the surface sediments commonly have extremely low densities, and thus comprise very little material. On burial, we can expect that any enrichment will be strongly diluted by the normal underlying and overlying sediment. There are, however, some potential examples in the sediment of Lake Baikal (Boyle et al., 1998), where frequent small turbidity flows provide an ideal mechanism for burying the surface enrichments. 

The archaeology and literature of the northern lands includes an idealism, almost romanticism, in attitude towards this technology. The Osberg ship is a burial offering, recovered in pristine condition, a full-scale vessel but of idealised form, practical yet of such low freeboard as to be unfit for the open sea exquisite in proportion and construction, the cart included among the grave goods on deck is useless. The components of the ship are extraordinarily attenuated, almost transposed into a dream world, and the formal terminations of the keel, stem and stern, are sublime. ... 

The company s Ecoflex pre-insu-lated pipe is available in 1-, VA- and iy2-in. ASTM sizes. Ideal for commercial and residential applications that require insulated underground piping, ASTM Ecoflex features hePEX plus barrier tubing surrounded by closedcell, PEX-foam insulation and covered by a waterproof, corrugated HOPE jacket, making it ideal for direct-burial applications. 

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