Bone Color as an Interpretive Tool of the Depositional History of Archaeological Cremains

The forensic evaluation of burned skeletal remains: A synthesis

“…Earlier, Dunlop [64] had reported that copper produced a pink color in cremated bones, iron a green color and zinc a yellow color. Bone color can vary within different areas of a recovery site, reflecting variation in soil composition, the specific skeletal elements exposed and related factors [65].…”

Staging the manipulation of the dead in Pre- and Protopalatial Crete, Greece (3rd–early 2nd mill. BCE): From body wholes to fragmented body parts

“…8) (cf. Buikstra and Swegle, 1989;Ubelaker and Rife, 2007;Delvin and Herrmann, 2008;Walker et al, 2008;Ubelaker, 2008). There were also pottery fragments with severe alterations due to extended exposure to high temperatures, human bone fragments with evidence of melted metal material, and pieces of charcoal recovered from Levi's old excavation (Levi, 1961-62) and the recent small scale excavation by Luca Girella (Girella, 2012(Girella, , 2013.…”

Burned bones forensic investigations employing near infrared spectroscopy

“…Also, other aspects, as external and diagenetic factors, could modify the bone colour producing similar changes than those caused by high temperatures [15][16][17]. Overall, study of burned remains is a difficult interpretative challenge for forensics and anthropologist due to different factors and aspects to be considered.…”

“…However different perceptions or changes in lighting conditions can significantly modify the results [6]. Another method used to colour determination was suggested by Devlin et al [10] using CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB) uniform colour space for the recording of bone surface colour data. However, mistakes on the methodologies employed for burned bone classification and analysis have recently been stressed.…”