‘Old wood’ effect in radiocarbon dating of prehistoric cremated bones?

Numerous reports of successful radiocarbon dating of cremated bones have emerged during the last decade. The success of radiocarbon dating cremated bones depends on the temperature during burning and the degree of recrystallisation of the inorganic bone matrix. During cremation bones undergo major morphological and mineralogical changes which have raised some interesting questions and discussion on the origin of the carbon source in archaeologically cremated bones. Recent laboratory experiments reveal that the properties of the combustion atmosphere play a significant role regarding the source carbon in cremated bones. Thus radiocarbon dating cremated bones is potentially dating the wood used for the cremation fire. Here we compare a high precision radiocarbon dated human bone with an associated dendrochronological age from an oak coffin. We find that the age discrepancy between the dendrochronological age and the cremated bone of 73 ± 26 ¹⁴C yr is best accounted for by the so called ‘old wood’ effect.     

Identification of the first reported Lapita cremation in the Pacific Islands using archaeological,forensic and contemporary burning evidence

Burnt human remains excavated from a scoop feature from a cemetery at Teouma, Vanuatu in the western Pacific (∼2850 BP) were examined to assess the nature of the deposit. Possible scenarios explaining the reason the bone was burnt and interred were assessed using osteological signatures taken from archaeological, experimental, and forensic studies. The methodology of the study included recording color change, types of bone distortion, and element representation in conjunction with archaeological evidence. The burnt and fragmented human bone (n = 430, fragments weighing 620 g) represents a single adult individual. Macroscopic evidence from the bone indicates the body had been fleshed or fresh at the time of burning and element representation follows a similar pattern to other burials excavated from the site. Excluding burning, there was no evidence of human modification to the bone such as cut marks, percussion pits or peri mortem trauma suggestive of cannibalism. The archaeological evidence from the site indicates that the body had not been burnt in the place the remains were subsequently discovered. The combined macroscopic and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that the human bone was burnt as a result of a deliberate cremation of an individual. If a conclusion of deliberate cremation is accepted, this research represents the first case of a Lapita period cremation and demonstrates how a combination of methods can explain the nature of an archaeological deposit of burnt human bone when the cause is not otherwise apparent.     

A new calibration of the XRD technique for the study of archaeological burned human remains

A new calibration of human bones as a function of programmed temperature (200–1000 °C) and time (0, 18 and 60 min) is presented and discussed in order to investigate the issues related to the study of cremated bone remains by using the powder X-ray diffraction approach. The experimental results confirm the growth of hydroxylapatite crystallites as a function of the applied temperature, with a sigmoid behaviour that has been parameterized to the experimental data points. Particularly, it was observed that the thermal treatments for 60 min anticipate of about 100 °C the effects that are otherwise observed after the treatments for 0 min. The developed procedure was subsequently applied to cremated remains of various archaeological sites of Spain and supplied precise information not only about the temperature reached during the funerary rites, but also on the presumed duration for the cremation.     

ON THE INTENT TO MAKE CRAMP: AN INTERPRETATION OF VITREOUS SEAWEED CREMATION 'WASTE' FROM PREHISTORIC BURIAL SITES IN ORKNEY, SCOTLAND

Summary.   Vitreous slag-like material, known as 'cramp', from prehistoric cremation burial sites in Orkney is, apart from cremated bone, one of the recurrent remains found within or around Bronze Age burials. Although the suggestion that cramp was formed by the fusing of sand attached to dry seaweed while it was being burnt was first proposed in the 1930s, there has never been a consideration of seaweed's contribution to cremation other than as a potential fuel. Scientific analyses presented in this paper corroborate the use of seaweed. It is suggested that cramp may have been deliberately produced to act as an efficient collector of shattered bone which otherwise could have been lost during the cremation. Far from being a 'waste', cramp could well have been another form of 'human-remains' in its own right.     

Reassessing the Age,Sex and Metric Variation of Commingled Human Remains from a 1911 Excavation of a Neolithic Passage Tomb Complex in North‐West Ireland

The Neolithic passage tomb complex at Carrowkeel, County Sligo, Ireland, is one of the best preserved and most significant megalithic funerary and ritual landscapes in Europe. The most substantial archaeological excavations at the complex were undertaken in 1911, from which a relatively large sample of commingled unburnt and cremated human remains from seven chambered passage tombs was recovered. Although the archaeological value of this material is reduced as its spatial and stratigraphic context is uncertain, the skeletal remains have the potential to provide insights into how these monuments were used. This study is a quantitative reassessment of that osteological material from the passage tombs excavated in 1911, with a focus on a contextual analysis of the remains. Overall, the age‐at‐death and sex ratios do not indicate any demographic differentiation between monuments in selecting locations for the deposition of bodies, and there is no clear evidence to suggest any selectiveness of certain skeletal elements took place. There may however have been a differentiating age and gender aspect in terms of the unburnt versus cremated bone surface depositions within the passage tombs, as a higher proportion of 5+ years non‐adults and adult females were present in the cremated material. By using the log‐ratio metric scaling technique on the cremated adult material, a statistically significant difference in skeletal dimensions is observed between individual passage tombs; however, it is unclear how significant this disparity is from a biocultural point of view. Despite apparent methodological difficulties in assessing an archaeological bone assemblage collected by early 20th‐century antiquarians, the material can still yield new knowledge about the rituals conducted at Carrowkeel. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Place to Rest Your (Burnt) Bones? Mortuary Houses in Early Anglo-Saxon England

This article presents a fresh interpretation of square and rectangular mortuary structures found in association with deposits of cremated material and cremation burials in a range of early Anglo-Saxon (fifth-/sixth-century AD) cemeteries across southern and eastern England. Responding to a recent argument that they could be traces of pyre structures, a range of ethnographic analogies are drawn upon, and the full-range of archaeological evidence is synthesized, to re-affirm and extend their interpretation as unburned mortuary structures. Three interleaving significances are proposed: (i) demarcating the burial place of specific individuals or groups from the rest of the cemetery population, (ii) operating as ‘columbaria’ for the above-ground storage of the cremated dead (i.e. not just to demarcate cremation burials), and (iii) providing key nodes of commemoration between funerals as the structures were built, used, repaired and eventually decayed within cemeteries. The article proposes that timber ‘mortuary houses’ reveal that groups in early Anglo-Saxon England perceived their cemeteries in relation to contemporary settlement architectures, with some groups constructing and maintaining miniaturized canopied buildings to store and display the cremated remains of the dead.     

A Unique Case of Prone Position in the Primary Cremation Tomb 252 of Monte Sirai Necropolis (Carbonia,Sardinia, Italy)

A series of graves belonging to the Phoenician period were investigated after the campaign excavation of 2007 in the Phoenician‐Punic necropolis of Monte Sirai (Carbonia, Sardinia, Italy). One tomb in particular (labelled 252) is presented here because of its uniqueness. Tomb 252 contained the cremated remains of an individual, probably male, and comparison of the excavation records alongside reconstruction of the bone material itself makes clear that the individual was cremated in a prone position. It represents the first case of prone cremation reported in the literature. To investigate whether the temperature of the cremation was homogenous across the entire body, we have conducted a combined physical–chemical analysis using X‐ray diffraction spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Characterisation and blind testing of radiocarbon dating of cremated bone

The success of radiocarbon dating of burned or cremated bones depends on the exposed temperature during burning and the degree of re-crystallisation of the inorganic bone matrix. We present a method for characterisation of likely cremated bones by employing visual inspection, infrared spectrometry and carbon stable isotope analysis on the bio-apatite fraction. The method of radiocarbon dating of cremated bones was tested by dating paired samples of bone and associated context materials such as pitch, charcoal and a dendrochronologically dated oak coffin. The dating of these paired test samples were largely performed as blind tests and showed excellent agreement between pitch and bone. The weighted mean age difference of all test samples is observed to −9 ± 60 ¹⁴C yr. To test the indicators and the effects of the degree of burning, a Late-Neolithic human individual has been studied, as this individual exhibits the full spectrum from low temperature burning (charred) to high temperature (“cremated”) from one end of a single bone to the other. This is reflected as a marked step in numerous parameters as well as in a significant difference in ¹⁴C age between the charred and the cremated bone samples.     

THE DATE AND SEQUENCE OF USE OF NEOLITHIC FUNERARY MONUMENTS: NEW AMS DATING EVIDENCE FROM THE COTSWOLD-SEVERN REGION

Summary.   In this paper we discuss 26 new Neolithic AMS dates obtained from human and animal bone from four previously undated funerary monuments in the Cotswold-Severn region. By strategically targeting particular portions of these skeletal assemblages, a number of valuable inferences are made concerning the extent of variation in apparently co-existing burial practices both within and between monuments. Of particular interest is the observation that variations in the extent to which interments have become disarticulated cannot necessarily be equated with chronological relationships regarding their deposition. This project has also obtained dates from cremated bone, which establish that the range of funerary treatments in practice during the earlier Neolithic also included cremation. Additionally it is observed that whilst some, apparently primary, deposits may in fact be later insertions, other material in apparently secondary contexts may actually return earlier Neolithic dates.     

COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND COMPUTED RADIOGRAPHY OF LATE BRONZE AGE CREMATION URNS FROM DENMARK: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP METHODS APPLIED IN BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL CREMATION RESEARCH

To improve the methods used to study prehistoric cremation rituals, cremation urns from the Danish Late Bronze Age were examined using computed tomography and computed radiography (digital X‐ray). During micro‐excavation, the digital images were used as a registration tool. Our results suggest that osteological ageing and sexing are more accurate when combining CT images with excavated remains. Digital volume rendering further enables a compromised estimation of the original cremation weight. Micro‐excavation is clearly a primary cause of bone fragmentation. Cremated remains affected by lower cremation intensity show markedly poorer preservation and recovery than do white calcined fragments. Thus post‐excavation estimations of cremation intensity are systematically biased.     

Ancient molecules and human prehistory

Abstract

DNA and other molecules found in ancient remains are yielding new information about the origins, spread, interaction, and culture of early humans. Molecules of animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery have shown that in medieval societies people ate non-ruminant animals, such as pigs, but burned tallow from ruminants, such as sheep and cattle. Geochemical analysis of bitumen in the Middle East has documented ancient trade routes. Studies of molecular genetic diversity have shed light on when and how cattle were domesticated. Analysis of human hair from remains up to 5200 years old has revealed the diets of those ancient people. DNA recovered from other remains has also provided evidence for theories about the origins and spread of agriculture, and human migration into the Pacific.     

Neolithic cremation in south‐east Arabia: archaeological and anthropological observations at FAY‐NE10 in the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE)

Small fragments of cremated human bone, clearly representing numerous individuals, were found in a stratified Neolithic context in a small cave at Jebel Faya in the Central Region of the Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. With radiocarbon dates between 6500 and 5800 cal BC, they are among the earliest well‐documented cases of cremations in south‐west Asia. Taxonomic identification of the small burned bone fragments is based on morphological and histological analysis. The deposits are to date the oldest human remains found in south‐east Arabia and represent a phase during the Middle Neolithic for which no other types of burials have yet been documented.     

Skeletal analysis and mortuary practice in an Early Roman chamber tomb at Kenchreai,Greece

Recent exploration of the site of Kenchreai, the eastern port of Corinth in southern Greece, has focussed on a cemetery of subterranean chamber tombs dating chiefly to the Early Roman period (middle‐late 1st to 3rd centuries AD). The copious but fragmentary human bones and teeth found in Tomb 10 have been disturbed since burial by natural processes, including bedrock erosion and the infiltration of moisture, roots and basic sediment, and by destructive looters. Nonetheless, the remains furnish considerable information about the mortuary practices of wealthy residents. Analysis of the remains in their archaeological and taphonomic contexts reveals that Tomb 10 contained at least 23 individuals, 15 inhumed in loculi and 8 cremated and placed in niches, sometimes in urns. The identification of males, females and subadults among the burned and unburned bones and teeth suggests that spouses, parents and children probably from several generations of the same lineage or household were buried here. The nature of the cremated fragments reflects a laborious process during which mourners burned bodies on substantial pyres at extremely high temperatures for a long time. Then they carefully extracted a representative sample of small fragments from throughout the reduced skeleton for burial at the tomb. This study contributes to a better understanding of mortuary practices in the Roman East, particularly the Greek world, where the chamber tomb was a common sepulchral type. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Burned bone in the Howieson’s Poort and post-Howieson’s Poort Middle Stone Age deposits at Sibudu (South Africa): behavioral and taphonomic implications

Despite a growing awareness of the wide range of information that can be provided by detailed analyses of burned bone from archaeological contexts, such analyses are still relatively uncommon. This paper focuses on the behavioral and taphonomic implications of burned bone from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Sibudu Cave (South Africa), reporting on the analysis of a large sample (>377,000 fragments) of bone recovered from the Howieson’s Poort (HP) and post-HP MSA deposits at the site. Faunal remains were initially sorted into burning categories based on changes in color; microscopic analyses focused on the optical properties of the bone matrix (degree of preservation of the bone structure, reflectance and fluorescence) indicated that the color is a valid indicator of thermally altered bone in the Sibudu assemblage. The association of burned bone with hearths, the intensity of burning damage, and the sheer quantity of thermally altered bone suggests that the bone was not burned primarily as a result of natural fires. We propose that the high incidence of burned bone primarily reflects two types of site maintenance activities: first, the discarding of bone into fire as a means of disposing of food waste (as also argued by Cain [2005, Using burned animal bone to look at Middle Stone Age occupation and behavior. J. Archaeol. Sci. 32, 873–884], for a smaller sample of material from the post-HP and late MSA deposits at the site), and second, the incidental burning of bone on/near the surface during the periodic burning of plant-based bedding. In considering the taphonomic implications of the burned bone, we demonstrate that calcined bone is in fact more heavily fragmented than unburnt or moderately burned bone. Furthermore, cortical preservation was negatively correlated with the intensity of burning damage, which has implications for the study of surface modifications. These results indicate the importance of conducting thorough taphonomic analyses prior to making comparisons between units that show differing degrees or intensities of burning damage.     

Itaakpa,a Late Stone Age site in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Itaakpa rockshelter was excavated in three short field seasons, from 1985 to 1988, during which a human maxilla and mandible were found in a context characteristic of the ceramic phase of the West African Late Stone Age (LSA). An AMS date of 2210±80 b.p. was obtained from burned palm kernels from the same level. There was no apparent stratigraphic or archaeological break between this level and the layers above, and the pottery indicates continuity of occupation; the upper part of the sequence compares well with other, more recent, sites known in the area. The dimensions of the human teeth show an affinity with those found at Shum Laka, a rockshelter in southwestern Cameroun, in an archaeological context similar to that at Itaakpa. The site is only the third to be found in Nigeria (along with Iwo Eleru and Rop Rockshelter) where human remains suitable for comparative analysis have been identified in a good stratigraphic context along with LSA artifacts.     

Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence

The North American archaeological phenomenon known as Clovis is famous for the fact that a number of sites that contain diagnostic Clovis artifacts also contain the remains of mammoth and perhaps other extinct genera. In the past, this has led many to assume that Clovis subsistence adaptations were organized around large, now-extinct mammals. It has also seemed to support the argument that the colonization of the Americas by hunters about 11,500 years ago caused the extinction, either directly or indirectly, of some 35 genera of primarily large mammals. Here, we review all sites known to us that have been suggested to provide evidence for the association of Clovis-age archaeological material with the remains of now-extinct Pleistocene mammals. Of the 76 sites reviewed, only 14 provide strong evidence that Clovis-aged people hunted such mammals. Of these sites, 12 contain the remains of mammoth, while two contain the remains of mastodon. Although the prime focus of the analysis we present is on Clovis-age archaeological associations with now-extinct mammals, we conclude that there is no evidence provided by the North American archaeological record to support the argument that people played a significant role in causing Pleistocene extinctions here.     

Special Studies: Naturally Deposited Versus Intentionally Applied Gypsum on Archaeological Materials from Harappa,Pakistan

Abstract

White deposits on archaeological vessels excavated at Harappa, Pakistan, were identified by x-ray diffraction analysis as pure gypsum. Because of the evenness and location of the layer it appeared to have been intentionally applied. But since we were aware that the site has an extreme salt problem there was a possibility that the layer was a post-depositional accretion. Through the comparison of x-ray diffraction (XRD) peak intensities and the crystal morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) it was determined that natural and intentionally calcined/hydrated gypsum could be differentiated. This study should help archaeologists and conservators distinguish burial deposits from intentionally applied gypsum on archaeological material.     

Material evidence for the use of Attic white-ground lekythoi ceramics in cremation burials

White-ground lekythoi ceramics offer important evidence for funeral practices in Ancient Greece (5th century BC). The images painted-on these oil containers provide the best visual narrative for the events surrounding death, including indications that the vessels themselves were used as part of the funerary rites. However, until now, their specific function and treatment within the funeral ceremony was not well understood. We present here material evidence that the vessels were ritually burned, together with the body of the deceased, during cremation, as evidenced by a diffuse purplish-red discolouration found on many white-ground lekythoi. Through EPMA and μXAS studies, we show that: (1) this characteristic purplish-red discolouration is due to the presence of metallic copper nano-particles embedded in a glassy layer; (2) this metal-glass matrix formed as the result of a high temperature reaction between painted-on Cu-based pigments (e.g., Egyptian blue) and the white-ground ceramic slip; and (3) the reaction occurred under a reducing environment. Given the mortuary context for these vessels, we propose the reduction firing to which the vessels were exposed was that associated with the cremation of the body. The observation of discontinuous formation of the purplish-red discolouration along adjoining fragments supports the hypothesis that the vessels were broken prior to being burned. The majority of lekythoi in museum collections lack information on their original archaeological context, and our data suggest the presence of this purplish-red discolouration may serve as a visual marker for cremation. As such, it is expected our findings will provide a new basis for interpreting how this important class of ceramic, and associated iconographic imagery, relates to Athenian funerary practices and the ancient Greek notion of death.