The use of soil chemistry data to address post-mortem diagenesis in bone mineral

The soluble and exchangeable ions for a soil profile from the Roonka archaeological site. Lower Murray Basin, South Australia, are compared with the total elemental content of the soils. Since the chemical composition of post-mortem ionic substitution phases and secondary minerals in archaeological bone will depend on the availability of ions to the soil solution under field conditions, it is suggested that models addressing diagenesis in bone employ soluble and exchangeable ions rather than total elemental soil data.     

A relational approach to walking: Methodology,metalanguage, and power relations

To better understand walking practices and the power relations informing them, Mattias Kärrholm and colleagues argue for a relational methodology and metalanguage. In the process, they propose a threefold approach: (a) identify different walking assemblages; (b) investigate how diverse types of walking assemblage relate in series; and (c) study how certain objects can gather or bind series together and act as boundary objects. In this article, we explore the worth of that approach, drawing on research interviews held over 2015–16 with residents from Wollongong, Australia, during a period when their municipal government was implementing a walkable city strategy. Here, we analyse participants' conversations with us for what they reveal about walking types, walking assemblages, interseriality, objects of passage, and boundary objects—five terms used by Kärrholm et al. to interrogate urban walking. Our work suggests that participants are adept at gauging the constant transformations that characterise their walks. This narrative evaluative capacity is, perhaps paradoxically, both compelling and mundane and suggests that participants make sense of a range of meanings from complex social and spatial dynamics and do so in ways that highlight privilege and disadvantage in the city. These findings have wider relevance for those interested in walking and mobilities studies and methodologies.     

Variation in human bone bioerosion during the Late Eneolithic/Bronze Age in Moravia (Czech Republic): A novel approach to BSE-SEM image quality and quantity assessment

Human bones from Late Eneolithic graves and Bronze Age settlement pits in Moravia (Czech Republic) were studied to reconstruct their post-mortem histories based on the distribution of their microbial destruction. Backscattered electrons in a scanning electron microscope (BSE-SEM) were used for visual assessment of bioerosion. Visual data from the histological analysis were transformed into quantitative data using the Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) toolkit. The results show that the presence of bioerosion is different between the two groups of samples. The bones from settlement pits display extensive bioerosion whereas the bones from graves display no or arrested bioerosion. The absence of bioerosion in graves is most probably linked with tomb burials of Corded Ware Culture. Given the tombs are frequently not preserved archaeologically, the state of bone bioerosion may serve as an indicator of their existence.     

Skeletal correlates of human behavior in the americas

A review of recent anthropological research deriving behavioral inferences from analyses of human skeletal remains focuses on interpretations of diet, social organization, population structure and migration, activities, activity levels and occupation, and warfare, violence, and death in the prehistoric and historic Americas. Critical evaluation of these inferences shows that some of them suffer from inadequate supporting evidence, lack of consideration of alternative hypotheses, or absence of clear methods for deriving and testing these inferences. Overall, however, the potential for behavioral reconstruction from skeletal analysis is great. Behaviors leaving more direct effects on bone such as dietary preference, warfare, and some activities produced the most secure inferences when derived from populational samples and supported by supplementary evidence. Human skeletal remains represent important resources for the reconstruction of behavior.     

A new find of brown bear (Ursus arctos) from Star Carr and other finds in the late glacial and post glacial of Britain and Denmark

A vertebra of a Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is described from the Mesolithic settlement Star Carr. This is the first record of the species from the site. The presence of Brown Bear in a Preboreal/Boreal deposit is an important addition to the early Mesolithic fauna of Britain. A comparison with contemporary Danish material shows that the bone from Star Carr falls within the wide size range of the Danish subfossil Brown Bear. In Denmark the species decreases in number from Boreal to Atlantic time, and finds are extremely scarce in Britain during the same time interval. This is probably due to the major eustatic sea level rise, which isolated Britain and Sjælland, preventing new immigration, and to vegetational changes restricting the preferred habitats of the Brown Bear.     

Snail assemblages: interrogating an environmental controversy involving Powelliphanta augusta and the mining industry in Aotearoa New Zealand

In 2004, a controversy arose in Aotearoa New Zealand's coal mining sector that involved Powelliphanta augusta, a species of land snail. This paper considers that controversy in terms of emergent assemblages involving the snail, the mining industry, the Department of Conservation, political action by environmental non‐government organisations, and public expressions of environmental and other values. Three sets of relations embedded in those assemblages are examined—those related to positioning and organising nature; values, politics, and power relations; and human and non‐human materialities. Those relations illuminate how a protracted controversy and its objects form a “social test bed” for contested views in legislation and guidelines dealing with economy, conservation, and restoration. To assess the dynamics, complexities, and contingencies of such relations, attention is paid to the controversy's detailed time line and legal framing, as well as to ontological shifts of snail and habitat and snail metrics. This analytical focus highlights the shifting quality of ideas about how the snail and its habitat are understood as entangled in fraught and mutating strategies of translocation that are played out in a particular regulatory setting. It also provides insights into international geographical efforts to re‐shape environmental governance and management.     

The Finishing Technique of the Stone Monuments of Persepolis: Further Studies and New Findings Through the Use of Non‐Destructive Analytical Techniques

The studies on the finishing technique of the stone monuments in Persepolis (Iran) are part of the archaeological project jointly launched in 2008 by Iran and Italy, named ‘From Palace to Town’. The first experimental results, obtained on a very limited number of samples, revealed that the Achaemenid builders and sculptors used a white pigment, a kind of bone white, calcium fluorapatite, obtained by burning animal bones, to hide the dark grey colour of the stone. In order to verify these unexpected results, a new campaign was implemented to analyse a much larger number of samples. XRF spectrometry, a non‐destructive technique, was used and the experimental results were further elaborated by PCA. The presence of a white superficial layer was confirmed, and the use of fluorapatite was confirmed as well, but only on monuments attributed to the Xerxes period or later, while in the earlier monuments the white layer was obtained using gypsum.     

Are Teeth Better? Histological Characterization of Diagenesis in Archaeological Bone–Tooth Pairs and a Discussion of the Consequences for Archaeometric Sample Selection and Analyses

Teeth are often the preferred source material for isotopic and genetic assay involving ancient biomolecules. The assumption is that dental tissue preserves better due to its anatomically protected location, the enamel cap, and lower porosity compared to bone. However, this assumption has not been widely tested. Some similarities in diagenetic processes are to be expected due to similarities in structure and chemical composition of dentine and bone. This has led to the suggestion that bone can be used as an indicator of dental preservation, as a pre‐screening technique in the selection of suitable samples for biomolecular studies. Thus, direct testing of the correlation between bone and tooth preservation and diagenesis is needed. This paper reports the results of the histological characterization of diagenetic alterations within 25 human femur–tooth pairs, from a Medieval to modern (AD 1850) cemetery in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The results showed that teeth do indeed preserve better overall, but not always, and that this was dependent on the main diagenetic factor(s) at the burial location. Furthermore, good correlations are found between the microstructural preservation of bone and teeth; similar processes of decay were observed within bone and teeth of the same individual. Overall, the study demonstrated that histological analysis of bone is useful for the identification of degradation processes that affect biomolecular preservation in skeletal material. In this way, sample selection and analytical strategies can be optimized. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Different Preparation Techniques – Similar Results? On the Quality of Thin‐Ground Sections of Archaeological Bone

Palaeohistology as a valuable diagnostic instrument is dependent on the production of high‐quality thin‐ground sections from dry bone. The objective of this study was to consider technical differences and assess the qualitative outcomes of five techniques for preparing thin‐ground sections from dry archaeological bone. Established techniques with long follow‐up times and excellently documented results were compared with simpler and cheaper time‐saving techniques. Evaluations were made of the quality of thin sections obtained by one classical machine‐based embedding technique, two revised versions of the same technique, one manual moulding technique based on Frost's rapid technique and one manual hybrid technique. Five osteological specimens of differing quality were prepared following the manuals for these five techniques and examined microscopically with respect to a list of standardised histological and diagenetic parameters. Alterations in the specimens attributable to preparation effects were recorded, and observations were scored with reference to three criteria: section quality, technical quality and staining. The results show that embedding techniques are to prefer. Superglue should not be used as a mounting or embedding medium. Manual grinding comes with several limitations, and machine cutting and grinding are preferred. Haematoxylin staining can be successfully applied to embedded specimens, giving more information on microscopic diagenetic processes. A stepwise manual for a revision of the classical embedding technique is presented. The time required for producing sections using classical embedding techniques is shortened from 6 weeks to 3.7 days by refining the preparation/polymerization processes involved with no loss of osteological data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bioarchaeological Analysis of a Royal Burial from the Oldest Maya Tomb in Palenque,Mexico

In 1957, a new discovery inside Temple XVIII‐A was made in Palenque, the Mayan archaeological site in Chiapas Mexico, a royal tomb of an original design which proved to be the oldest at the site. Two skeletons were found, the principal (PAL‐44) was at the centre showing red pigmentation on the surface of some bones, personal adornments and offerings, which indicate that he was an early ruler of Palenque. The second (PAL‐45), deposited at the entrance, not in a special mortuary position, without offerings, suggests it was of a lower social status. This research presents a new bioarchaeological analysis with the following results: (i) The result of a direct radiocarbon dating of PAL‐44 by accelerator mass spectrometry is 250–420 cal AD (LTL12759A:1696 ± 30 BP). This means that the personage was buried long before the first designated ruler of Palenque, who, according to the epigraphic record was enthroned in ad 431. (ii) With X‐Ray Fluorescence, the red pigment was identified as cinnabar (HgS). (iii) PAL‐44 is a young adult male with a severe idiopathic scoliosis with a double curvature that affected the ribcage and lower limbs. Such a three‐dimensional deformity resulted in changes to his body mechanics and induced motion asymmetry. Consequently, his health and mobility must have been significantly affected by such a severe condition. (iv) PAL‐45 is an adult female with signs of nutritional problems in childhood and entheseal changes probably related to her activity. Three ante‐mortem traumas are registered: rib fracture, frontal depressed circular fracture and a nasal septal deviation. This traumatic event took place two weeks, approximately, prior to PAL‐45's death. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.