Understanding the chemical and physical alteration in archaeological bones, occurred after burial, is very interesting for researchers. In this paper, we present a study on the diagenetic alteration of human archaeological bony tissues from Paestum (South Italy), by combining complementary spectroscopic techniques, such as solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and X-ray diffraction. In particular, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance–cross polarization-magic angle spinning (13C NMR CP-MAS) spectroscopy allows to identify and discriminate the adsorbed calcite, that is a diagenetic contaminant, from the structural one of apatite and 1H NMR-MAS spectroscopy shows how the degradation of organic phase of collagen is related to the time. The NMR data are combined with crystalline index, measured by X-ray diffraction, and with the splitting factor obtained by infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, the evaluation of the relative content of biogenic structural carbonate and of diagenetic fluorine is reported.
Detection of diagenetic alterations by spectroscopic analysis on archaeological bones from necropolis of Poseidonia (Paestum: a case of study)
MOTTA, ORIANA;PROTO, Antonio
2009
Abstract
Understanding the chemical and physical alteration in archaeological bones, occurred after burial, is very interesting for researchers. In this paper, we present a study on the diagenetic alteration of human archaeological bony tissues from Paestum (South Italy), by combining complementary spectroscopic techniques, such as solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and X-ray diffraction. In particular, 13C nuclear magnetic resonance–cross polarization-magic angle spinning (13C NMR CP-MAS) spectroscopy allows to identify and discriminate the adsorbed calcite, that is a diagenetic contaminant, from the structural one of apatite and 1H NMR-MAS spectroscopy shows how the degradation of organic phase of collagen is related to the time. The NMR data are combined with crystalline index, measured by X-ray diffraction, and with the splitting factor obtained by infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, the evaluation of the relative content of biogenic structural carbonate and of diagenetic fluorine is reported.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
