Post-burial

The measurements on AB3 are a good example of post-burial behaviour that illustrates the influence of the remaining organic fraction on the uptake of F in bone. An inverse correlation of N and F distribution profiles measured by means... 

The exposure of quartz and feldspar grains to sunlight for >60 s effectively diminishes the time-stored OSL signal to a low definable level. This residual level is the point from which the geological OSL signal accumulates post burial... 

Even Ca, the element we used to normalize all our other measures, may be subject to post-depositional alteration. Moreover, such alteration may vaiy depending on local environmental conditions. Such a factor may account for some of the overlap or blurring we see between regional elemental signatures in our prehistoric samples. Without knowing exactly how much change may have taken place in Ca concentrations in different burial conditions, it is difficult in such sourcing studies to account for this possibility. 

The wide range of 8180 values for post-Mississippian Zone 5 cements reflects, in part, precipitation of these cements at elevated temperatures. The trace element contents indicate little seawater influence on water chemistry. The values are variable but intermediate and suggest intraformational or extraformational cement carbon sources owing to pressure solution in conjunction with stylolitization during progressive burial of the formation to a depth of about 1000 m (Meyers and Lohmann, 1985 Moore, 1989). 

Owsley, D. W. and Compton, B. E. (1997). Preservation in late 19th century iron coffin burials, in Forensic Taphonomy The Post-mortem Fate of Human Remains (W. D. Haglund and M. H. Sorg, Eds.). Boca Raton, FL CRC Press, 511-526. Oyeka, C. A. and Okoli, I. (2003). Isolation of dermatophytes and non-dermato-phytic fungi from soil in Nigeria. Mycoses 46, 336-338. 

Tooth enamel represents one of the most resistant skeletal tissues to post-depositional decay in a burial environment (Duric, Rakocevic, and Tuller 2004), and, as a result, teeth are often the only identifying feature of a skeleton to remain. As decomposition proceeds, the loss of soft tissue around the mandible allows the exposed teeth to become dislodged from their original anatomical position. Postmortem tooth loss has been described as a possible indicator of PMI and appears to be dependent on age, periodontal health, seasonality, and location of the body placement (McKeown and Bennett 1995). Cadavers that are deposited in the summer months will undergo a more rapid process of soft-tissue decomposition and thus lose teeth more rapidly than bodies that decompose in the autumn or winter months. Similarly, a cadaver exposed to direct sunlight, or even deposited in a shaded area, will decompose and lose teeth more rapidly than a cadaver that has been buried. The... 

I. Reiche, L. Favre-Quattropani, T. Calligaro, J. Salomon, H. Bocherens, L. Charlet, M. Menu, Trace element composition of archaeological bones and post-mortem alteration in the burial environment, Nucl. Instr. Meth. B150 (1999) 656-662. 

To gain a better understanding of the effect of protein fiber type, dye, and mordant on sunlight and burial weathering processes, we dyed wool and silk with three phenolic dyes (found as major components in natural dye mixtures extracted from various plant sources) and post-mordanted samples of the dyed fabrics with five representative metal salts. We then exposed the unmordanted and the dyed-mordanted samples to simulated sunlight or soil burial and measured the differences in the color and tensile properties that resulted from these treatments. 

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