Patterns of diagenesis in bone I: The effects of site environments

We have measured a suite of "diagenetic parameters" for several populations of archaeological bones buried in a number of northwest European sites since the last Ice Age. These are: the structural damage due to microbes; changes in bone micro-and macro-porosity; protein content; a measure of the crystallinity of hydroxyapatite as reflected in the phosphate infra-red spectrum peak splitting; and a measure of the carbonate content as given by the ratio of carbonate to phosphate infra-red absorption peaks. The results provide a database that clearly characterises the patterns, which are often site-dependent, of diagenetic change in buried bone. Our main conclusions are that individual site hydrology appears to have a strong influence on the outcome of bone preservation and that porosity is the most effective single diagenetic parameter which both determines and reflects the preservation of bone in the burial environment. Copyright 2000 Academic Press