Artificially Heated Bone at Low Temperatures: A Quantitative Scanning-small-angle X-Ray Scattering Imaging Study of the Mineral Particle Size

Screening in situ bone and teeth preservation by ATR-FTIR mapping

“…Until today, there has been very little work on ancient material. Microfocus small angle X-ray scattering was applied to archaeological bones to detect changes in crystal properties during diagenesis and the impact of heating in archaeological context (Wess et al, 2002;Gourrier et al, 2011). Collagen preservation in bone was explored by ATR-FTIR micro-spectroscopy (Chadefaux et al, 2009), ion beam analysis (Beck et al, 2012) or near infrared spectroscopy imaging (Vincke et al, 2014).…”

Informative Potential of Multiscale Observations in Archaeological Biominerals Down to Nanoscale

“…using TEM, Richter 1986) and molecular levels [with FTIR spectroscopy (Ellingham et al 2015a;Lebon et al 2008;Shahack-Gross et al 1997;Squires et al 2011;Thompson et al 2009], many studies were devoted to assess changes in mineral nanocrystal organization Hiller et al 2003;Gourrier et al 2011a) and crystallographic structure (Person et al 1996b;Enzo et al 2007;Rogers et al 2010;Rogers and Daniels 2002;Piga et al 2008Piga et al , 2013. Oddly, while the collagen structure undergoes important denaturation processes before degrading at ~400 °C, a vast majority of experiments point to the quasi-systematic absence of changes in the mineral properties below this temperature.…”

“…Variations of structural composition at histological scale was not explored until recently on archaeological material, excepted the works by micro-small-angle X-ray scattering (micro-SAXS) of Wess et al (2001) on archaeological biological material. Recently, new analytical protocols were developed to investigate the composition and structural parameters at micro-and nanoscale by means of TEM on ultrathin sections, 2D FTIR and Raman micro-spectroscopy imaging, by quantitative scanning SAXS imaging (qsSAXSI) and by Full Field 2D chemical imaging using micro-XRF and PIXE Lebon et al 2011a, b;Bertrand et al, submitted;Gourrier et al 2007aGourrier et al , 2011b. These methods were developed on modern and experimentally altered (heated) bone samples, and applied to archaeological samples.…”

“…FTIR micro-spectroscopy in Attenuated Total Reflexion (ATR) mode was later applied to be able to analyse hard and brittle samples impossible to cut in very thin sections (Lebon et al 2016). Quantitative sSAXSI applied on similar samples and TEM on ultrathin sections allows describing texture and crystal size distribution (Gourrier et al 2011b). …”

Towards a Better Understanding of Alteration Phenomena of Archaeological Bone by a Closer Look at the Organic/Mineral Association at Micro- and Nanoscale. Preliminary Results on Neolithic Samples from Chalain Lake Site 19, Jura, France

“…[45]). Th e average chord length (so-called T parameter) can be considered as a standard parameter in the SAXS analysis of bone from archaeological contexts [46].…”