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Boiled versus unboiled: a study on Neolithic and contemporary human bones

2011; Elsevier BV; Volume: 38; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jas.2011.04.019

1095-9238

P. Bosch, Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera, Carlos Moreno‐Castilla, Miguel Cecilio Botella López,

Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Bones treated at low temperature do not present major modifications although, macroscopically, boiled bones may be distinguished from unboiled ones as they are smoother, lighter and more transparent. Such observations should correspond to textural modifications at a nanometric level and should depend on boiling time. In this study, contemporary human bones, boiled during various time intervals, were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nitrogen adsorption (BET). The results were used to estimate the boiling time in four archaeological samples (Neolithic bones from Malalmuerzo cave, Spain). It is concluded, comparing Neolithic bones to contemporary ones and from the textural characterization at a nanometrical level, that two of the archaeological bones were boiled and that they were boiled for less than 6 hours.