Human bone samples

Figure 9.4. Non-proteinogenetic amino acids in NCP s from all archaeological human bones. The values are the averages of all archaeological human bone samples taken together (cf Table 9.1). Dark columns mineral-bound NCP light columns serum proteins. Most non-proteinogenic amino acids are extracted with the serum proteins.

Figure 2. Organic residue following demineralization of human bone sample from (a) late Roman/Christian cemetery near Poundbury, Dorchester, England (sample supplied by Theya Molleson, British Museum) and (b) Upper Paleolithic site in...

In Stingeder s group the unique capabilities of sector field ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS were employed to reconstruct details of a homicide by thallium poisoning, which took place about 40 years ago in Austria.29 Thallium was determined in several human bone samples after acid digestion in a microwave oven. The thallium concentration measured by ICP-MS and GF-AAS varied from 1.07-2.63 p,gg 1, which was up to 170 times higher compared to the concentration found in persons who died due of natural causes. LA-ICP-MS was employed to analyze a thumbnail from the poisoned person compared to a control person. Thallium peaks were detected in the nail of the victim at a distance of 2.5 mm from the younger edge of nail.29... 

The first forensic application of the method occurred in 1989 and utilized 14C activity as an isotopic tracer to assign human bone samples to one of three periods a nonmodern period (prior to A.D. 1650), a premodern period (A.D. 1650-1950), and a modern period (A.D. 1950 to present) (Taylor et al. 1989). A bone dated in the nonmodern period was considered to be of no forensic interest if dated in the premodern period it was considered to be potentially of forensic interest, and a sample dated in the modern period was considered to be of definite forensic interest. The technique was successful in identifying two of the five samples analyzed as being of forensic interest. The advantages of the 14C method were its relative accuracy for the period in question and, more importantly, the fact that it was not affected by environmental variables. However, disadvantages of the method included the cost and amount of time taken to analyze the samples as well as the size of the sample required and the destructive nature of the technique. 

Modern human bone samples were analyzed to test the instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and to help establish more complete information on the natural levels of several trace elements in modem bones. The modern bones included seven samples of cortical bone and 16 samples of cancellous bone (eight of which were defatted). All samples were obtained from femoral heads. The data obtained for these 23 samples and a further description of the INAA technique have been reported elsewhere (13). For the purpose of comparison with the archaeological bone samples, this data obtained by using the same INAA technique is summarized in this chapter. 

Note All mummy samples and the modem bone samples were analyzed by INAA soil-buried samples were measured by XRF. "Average of 23 modern human bone samples analyzed after ashing at 500 °C (for more detail see ref. 13). 

Average of 23 modern dried human bone samples described in more detail in ref. 16. cFigure 1. 

Table II. Radiocarbon Determinations on the Carbonate, Collagen, and Amino Acid Fractions of Two Human Bone Samples...

Broadway JA, Strong AB. 1983. Radionuclides in human bone samples. Health Phys 45 765-768. 

Table 11. Descriptions of human bone samples and results of carbon isotope analyses...

Latkoczy, C., Prohaska,T., Stingeder, G., andTeschler-Nicola, M. (1998). Strontium isotope ratio measurements in prehistoric human bone samples by means of high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 13(6), 561. 

Tabic 1.1. Amino acids per thousand residues for standard type 1 collagen and 15 human bone collagen samples from St. Thomas Church cemetery. Samples are identified by burial numlter (Bx) followed by age midpoint for subadults and age range for adults in parentheses. For example, B17(0) refers to burial 17 who was aged as a newborn. 

Bones of 19 individuals were analyzed for strontium, rubidium and zinc. The number of samples was limited by the availability of bone after the stable isotope analyses were completed. Strontium was analyzed in order to test for trophic level, and to compare to other results obtained in the region on prehistoric peoples (Katzenberg 1984). Rubidium is not expected in human bone, so its presence acts as a measure of contamination. The use of zinc as a paleodi-etary indicator has been questioned recently (Ezzo 1994) and we were interested to see if there was any relationship between zinc content in food and bone. 

Table 1.4. Trace elemeni daia for human bone mineral samples (ppm).

Human bone strontium levels (Fig. 1.5) are within the range that is expeeted for that region (Katzenberg 1984). The sample size is small and uneven with only three females and one subadult so it is not possible to comment on sex or age differences except to say that the highest Sr content was found in the sample from a child aged around 9 2 years. 

The diet of the 19 century residents of Upper Canada was determined from historical sources and was reproduced in order to carry out chemical analysis. Stable carbon isotope analysis of food and human bone demonstrates that the spacing between the food eaten and the bone collagen is around 5.6%o. The value may vary slightly from this estimate since the latter is based on a reconstructed diet and a large number of bone samples, which exhibit a small amount of variation. Nevertheless, this empirically derived result agrees well with estimates from field (Vogel 1978), and laboratory studies (reviewed in Ambrose 1993). 

Figure 2.3. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of human bone collagen at Maya sites in Belize. The value for the modem sample has been corrected for collagen-hair spacing and the Industrial Effect. Boxes represent isotopic means one standard deviation.

Figure 3.2. Average carbon isotopic ratios for all human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene in the data base A Uncorrected ratios (Cu) B climate-corrected ratios (Cc). Only countries with more than 10 samples are included. For a description of the climatic correction procedure see text. 

Tabic 3.2. A comparison of the average 5 Cj and 5 Cc values of human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene. 

To enable comparison to this experimental approach, archaeological human bones of various ages and soil properties (Table 9.1) from the Anthropological Collection in Munich were analyzed. All German skeletal series come from humic soil with, neutral to slightly basic pH. The samples from Tinkey, Syria, coastal Pern and Egypt have been buried in dry, sandy soils. Soil samples from most of the excavation sites were available and bone sample... 

The detailed results of the analyses of the excavated human bones and soil samples from the respective archaeological sites are the subject of a forthcoming paper (Balzer et al. 1997, Turban-Just, in prep.). Therefore, only the major topics relating to the experimental approach shall be considered here. 

Musculoskeletal Effects. Information regarding musculoskeletal effects in humans is limited to the findings of bone marrow peritrabecular fibrosis and decreased cellularity in bone samples taken from the corpse of a 64-year-old man who had been exposed to 241 Am (11 years earlier) when an ion-exchange column containing about 100 g of241 Am exploded in his face (Priest et al. 1995). The explosion resulted in... 

El-Kammar, A., R. G. V. Hancock, and R. O. Allen (1989), Human bones as archaeological samples Changes due to contamination and diagenesis, in Allan, R. O. (ed.), Archaeological Chemistry, Advances in Chemistry Series, Vol. 4, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. 

This work demonstrated that AAR could give reasonable dates from smaller samples of bone than were necessary for radiocarbon, and had a time depth of at least 70 000 years, and possibly more if one of the more slowly racemizing amino acids such as alanine was used. The key paper came in 1974 (Bada et al., 1974), which published dates of between 6000 and 48 000 BP for various samples of human bone from the Californian coast (Table 8.1). The SDM (San Diego Museum) samples from site W-2 were from a shell midden near La Jolla excavated in 1926. Subsequently, it appears that 19 individual burials were recovered in a rescue operation from this site, known as La Jolla Shores SDM-16755 is thought to refer to more than one individual (La Jolla Shores I and II), with a third (La Jolla Shores III) identified as SDM-16740 (Taylor et al., 1985 Table 8.1). Site W-34 was located between Del Mar and Solano Beach, from a shell midden which had been largely destroyed by coastal... 

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