Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T12:34:24.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Dating of Calcined Bones: Where Does the Carbon Come from?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

A Zazzo ,
J-F Saliège ,
A Person  and
H Boucher
A Zazzo*
Affiliation:
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, CNRS UMR 7209 “Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements,” CP 56, 55 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France
J-F Saliège
Affiliation:
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, CNRS UMR 7209 “Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements,” CP 56, 55 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France Université Pierre et Marie Curie, LOCEAN, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
A Person
Affiliation:
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, JE 2477 Biominéralisations et Paléoenvironnements, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
H Boucher
Affiliation:
IRD, UR055 Paléotropique, 32 avenue Henri Varagnat, 93143 Bondy cedex, France
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Over the past decade, radiocarbon dating of the carbonate contained in the mineral fraction of calcined bones has emerged as a viable alternative to dating skeletal remains in situations where collagen is no longer present. However, anomalously low δ13C values have been reported for calcined bones, suggesting that the mineral fraction of bone is altered. Therefore, exchange with other sources of carbon during heating cannot be excluded. Here, we report new results from analyses on cremated bones found in archaeological sites in Africa and the Near East, as well as the results of several experiments aiming at improving our understanding of the fate of mineral and organic carbon of bone during heating. Heating of modern bone was carried out at different temperatures, for different durations, and under natural and controlled conditions, and the evolution of several parameters (weight, color, %C, %N, δ13C value, carbonate content, crystallinity indexes measured by XRD and FTIR) was monitored. Results from archaeological sites confirm that calcined bones are unreliable for paleoenvironmental and paleodietary reconstruction using stable isotopes. Experimental results suggest that the carbon remaining in bone after cremation likely comes from the original inorganic pool, highly fractionated due to rapid recrystallization. Therefore, its reliability for 14C dating should be seen as close to that of tooth enamel, due to crystallographic properties of calcined bones.

Type
How Good Are 14C Ages of Bones? Problems and Methods Applied
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 601 - 611
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Balter, V, Saliège, JF, Bocherens, H, Person, A. 2002. Evidence of physico-chemical and isotopic modifications in archaeological bones during controlled acid etching Archaeometry 44(3):329–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertaux, J, Fröhlich, F, Ildefonse, P. 1998. Multicomponent analysis of FTIR spectra: quantification of amorphous and crystallized mineral phases in synthetic and natural sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Research 68(3): 440–7.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, TFG, Bowles, A, Hedges, REM. 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.Google Scholar
Hassan, AA, Termine, JD, Haynes, CV Jr. 1977. Mineralogical studies on bone apatite and their implications for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 19(3):364–74.Google Scholar
Haynes, CV Jr. 1968. Radiocarbon: analysis of inorganic carbon of fossil bone and enamel. Science 161(3842):687–88.Google Scholar
Higham, TFG, Jacobi, RM, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2006. AMS radiocarbon dating of ancient bone using ultrafiltration. Radiocarbon 48(2):179–95.Google Scholar
Hüls, MC, Grootes, PM, Nadeau, MJ. 2007. How clean is ultrafiltration cleaning of bone collagen? Radiocarbon 49(2):193–200.Google Scholar
Lanting, JN, Aerts-Bijma, AT, van der Plicht, J. 2001. Dating cremated bone. Radiocarbon 43(2A):249–54.Google Scholar
Munro, LE, Longstaffe, J, White, CD. 2007. Burning and boiling of modern deer bone: effects on crystallinity and oxygen isotope composition of bioapatite phosphate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 249(1–2):90–102.Google Scholar
Munro, LE, Longstaffe, J, White, CD. 2008. Effects of heating on the carbon and oxygen-isotope compositions of structural carbonate in bioapatite from modern deer bone. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 266(3–4):142–50.Google Scholar
Olsen, J, Heinemeier, J, Bennike, P, Krause, C, Hornstrup, KM, Thrane, H. 2008. Characterisation and blind testing of radiocarbon dating of cremated bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(3):791–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Person, A, Bocherens, H, Saliège, JF, Zeitoun, V, Gérard, M. 1995. Early diagenetic evolution of bone phosphate: an X-ray diffractometry analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 22(2):211–21.Google Scholar
Person, A, Bocherens, H, Mariotti, A, Renard, M. 1996. Diagenetic evolution and experimental heating of bone phosphate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 126(1–2):135–49.Google Scholar
Saliège, JF, Person, A, Paris, F. 1995. Preservation of 12C/13C original ratio and 14C dating of the mineral fraction of human bones from Saharan tombs, Niger. Journal of Archaeological Science 22(2):301–12.Google Scholar
Schauble, EA, Ghosh, P, Eiler, J. 2006. Preferential formation of 13C–18O bonds in carbonate minerals, estimated using first principle lattice dynamics. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70(10):2510–29.Google Scholar
Schoeninger, MJ, DeNiro, MJ. 1982. Carbon isotope ratios of apatite from bone cannot be used to reconstruct diets of animals. Nature 297(5867):577–8.Google Scholar
Shemesh, A. 1990. Crystallinity and diagenesis of sedimentary apatites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54(9):2433–38.Google Scholar
Shipman, P, Foster, G, Schoeninger, M. 1984. Burnt bones and teeth: an experimental study of color, morphology, crystal structure and shrinkage. Journal of Archaeological Science 11(4):307–25.Google Scholar
Van Strydonck, M, Boudin, M, Hoefkens, M, De Mulder, G. 2005. 14C dating of cremated bones, why does it work? Lunula 13:3–10. Online at https://archive.ugent.be/retrieve/3095/14C-analyseLunulaXIII.pdf.Google Scholar