TRUJILLO MEDEROS, AIOZE RAFA, Aleman, Inmaculada , Botella, Miguel , Bosch, Pedro
No
J. Archaeol. Sci.
Article
Científica
1.889
1.731
01/04/2012
000301161300027
The differences between boiled or unboiled bones are not often studied. However, they are crucial to understand postmortem rituals and to establish defleshing procedures and mortuary practices. In this work, human bones boiled in sea or fresh water are characterized. The bone composition, as well as the compounds present in the resulting materials, shows that salt alters the boiling process mechanism. Hence, from structural and morphological criteria, it is possible to distinguish if a bone has been boiled in salt or fresh water. In both sets of samples, the smoothness of the bone surface depends on boiling time, but only in bones boiled in seawater, filaments are observed apparently pouring out of the pores. Those differences which are mainly morphological (smoothness of the surface) are explained in terms of a collagen diffusional mechanism favored by sodium and chloride ions. For a boiling time of 6 h, the surface is covered by a thick layer or crusts of degraded collagen. Experiments with seawater may be used as model experiments to simulate taphonomical alterations in bones exposed to salt water. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Temperature; Sodium; Chlorine; Collagen; Hydroxyapatite; Diagenesis; Seawater; Salt water; Marine environment; Boiling; Deflesh; Bone; Human; Taphonomy