scholarly journals Bone need not remain an elephant in the room for radiocarbon dating

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 201351
Author(s):  
Salvador Herrando-Pérez

Radiocarbon ( 14 C) analysis of skeletal remains by accelerator mass spectrometry is an essential tool in multiple branches of science. However, bone 14 C dating results can be inconsistent and not comparable due to disparate laboratory pretreatment protocols that remove contamination. And, pretreatments are rarely discussed or reported by end-users, making it an ‘elephant in the room’ for Quaternary scientists. Through a questionnaire survey, I quantified consensus on the reliability of collagen pretreatments for 14 C dating across 132 experts (25 countries). I discovered that while more than 95% of the audience was wary of contamination and would avoid gelatinization alone (minimum pretreatment used by most 14 C facilities), 52% asked laboratories to choose the pretreatment method for them, and 58% could not rank the reliability of at least one pretreatment. Ultrafiltration was highly popular, and purification by XAD resins seemed restricted to American researchers. Isolating and dating the amino acid hydroxyproline was perceived as the most reliable pretreatment, but is expensive, time-consuming and not widely available. Solid evidence supports that only molecular-level dating accommodates all known bone contaminants and guarantees complete removal of humic and fulvic acids and conservation substances, with three key areas of progress: (i) innovation and more funded research is required to develop affordable analytical chemistry that can handle low-mass samples of collagen amino acids, (ii) a certification agency overseeing dating-quality control is needed to enhance methodological reproducibility and dating accuracy among laboratories, and (iii) more cross-disciplinary work with better 14 C reporting etiquette will promote the integration of 14 C dating across disciplines. Those developments could conclude long-standing debates based on low-accuracy data used to build chronologies for animal domestications, human/megafauna extirpations and migrations, archaeology, palaeoecology, palaeontology and palaeoclimate models.

Author(s):  
Ramiro Remigio Gaibor Fernández ◽  
Abraham Adalberto Bayas Zamora ◽  
Galo Israel Muñoz Sánchez ◽  
Cristhian Adrián Rivas Santacruz

The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the physical characteristics of the vermicompost and the quality of the purine of the red Californian (Eisenia foetida) using different substrates of feed for these worms. For this purpose, nine treatments were studied: 75% African palm rachis + 25% cattle manure, 50% African palm rachis + 50% cattle manure, 25% African palm rachis + 75% livestock manure, 50% manure of cattle, 50% of manure of cattle, 25% of manure of cattle, 50% of manure of cattle, 50% of manure of cattle, 50% of rach of coconut + 50% of manure of Livestock, 25% coccus rachis + 75% livestock manure. The substrate made up of 50% of rachis of coconut and 50% of livestock manure can be used in nurseries or nurseries for being the one that registered a value of pH 7.3 plus the closest to the neutral compared to the others, besides this (75% of oil palm rachis and 25% of cattle manure) showed a higher content of humic and fulvic acids (0.87 and 0.45 p / p, respectively), compounds that are important for agriculture by stimulating plant growth, in addition to this reflection 0.06% sulfur content, 4.0 ppm boron, 7.0 ppm copper, 47.5 ppm iron, 6.0 ppm manganese, with a presence of microorganisms of the species Trichoderma, Penicillium, Cladosporium sp. in amounts of 1.91x105 UFC / ml, however in this substrate was obtained between 13.3 and 43.5% less liquid slurry in Comparison with other treatments.


2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Man ◽  
Izabella Pisarek ◽  
Michał Braczkowski ◽  
Barbara Pytel ◽  
Ryszard Olchawa

Radiocarbon ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 1301-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M Russo ◽  
Jennifer A Tripp ◽  
Katerina Douka ◽  
Thomas F G Higham

Coastal archaeological sites that lack organic remains for radiocarbon dating are often abundant sources of molluscan shells. As a substitute for materials such as bone and charcoal, shells can be analyzed with 14C dating to determine a site's age. Despite their being convenient, non-mobile archaeological artifacts, molluscan shells are plagued by several issues, including carbonate remodeling, in which aragonite in shells is converted to calcite as predicted by thermodynamics. We present here a carbonate density separation technique that addresses the issue of carbonate remodeling. Using a density fractionation with bromoform, aragonite concentrations are enriched in shells that have undergone significant remodeling. The technique has been applied to archaeological shells and has returned dates that are younger than those previously determined for the same shells.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 601-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Zazzo ◽  
J-F Saliège ◽  
A Person ◽  
H Boucher

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Lindsay Dunbar ◽  
Mike Roy

The islands of Orkney have long been associated with examples of Viking-age activity and often yield unique and well preserved records from the Viking and Late Norse periods. Investigations on the island of Sanday in Orkney, as part of a call off contract for human remains between Historic Environment Scotland and AOC Archaeology Group, have revealed the presence of an inhumation in association with an iron knife. Further investigation reveals that the burial is that of an adolescent skeleton (12–17 years). The north-east/south-west alignment of the body, in a flexed position, and its association with an iron knife indicates a pre-Christian burial rite, in line with a 9th or 10th century AD date, which corresponds with radiocarbon dating carried out on the skeletal remains. This burial contributes a new record to the wealth of evidence from around this period within the surrounding landscape on the island of Sanday.


1989 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kendall L. Carder ◽  
Robert G. Steward ◽  
George R. Harvey ◽  
Peter B. Ortner

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milanka Radulovic ◽  
◽  
Svetlana Mitrovski

Peat is a natural substrate for growth of microorganisms because it is rich in compounds that microorganisms can use as sources of carbon, nitrogen and growth factors. Peat originating from Vlasina lake in Eastern Serbia is especially rich in organic matter. The content of humic substances (humic acid, fulvic acid and humine) is almost twice that found in other peat-rich regions of similar origin and geochemical age. Humic and fluvic acids are known to promote microbial growth. In this work, humic and fulvic acids were first extracted from Vlasina lake peat and then added to minimal medium (synthetic, low ionic strength medium). The humic substances were added separately and combined in a 1:1 ratio by mass to study their individual and combined effect on microbial growth of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 (Gr–), Staphyloccocus aureus (Gr+) i Aureobasidium pullulans, strain CH-1. The microbial growth was measured microspectrophotometrically over a 24-hour period and growth curves were obtained for a range of acid concentrations between 25 µg cm-3 and 100 µg cm-3. It was found that both humic and fulvic acids promote the growth of all three microorganisms by up to a maximum of 40%-80% the extent of which varied with the concentration of the acid and the identity of the microorganism. In general, humic acid was found to result in higher microbial growth (at highest concentrations, up to ~80% for all three microbial species).


2007 ◽  
pp. 51-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred Wolf ◽  
Gunnar Buckau ◽  
Horstr Geckeis ◽  
Ngo Manh Thang ◽  
Enamul Hoque ◽  
...  

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