Different Preparation Techniques - Similar Results? On the Quality of Thin-Ground Sections of Archaeological Bone

Abstract

Palaeohistology as a valuable diagnostic instrument is dependent on the production of high‐quality thin‐ground sections from dry bone. The objective of this study was to consider technical differences and assess the qualitative outcomes of five techniques for preparing thin‐ground sections from dry archaeological bone. Established techniques with long follow‐up times and excellently documented results were compared with simpler and cheaper time‐saving techniques. Evaluations were made of the quality of thin sections obtained by one classical machine‐based embedding technique, two revised versions of the same technique, one manual moulding technique based on Frost's rapid technique and one manual hybrid technique. Five osteological specimens of differing quality were prepared following the manuals for these five techniques and examined microscopically with respect to a list of standardised histological and diagenetic parameters. Alterations in the specimens attributable to preparation effects were recorded, and observations were scored with reference to three criteria: section quality, technical quality and staining. The results show that embedding techniques are to prefer. Superglue should not be used as a mounting or embedding medium. Manual grinding comes with several limitations, and machine cutting and grinding are preferred. Haematoxylin staining can be successfully applied to embedded specimens, giving more information on microscopic diagenetic processes. A stepwise manual for a revision of the classical embedding technique is presented. The time required for producing sections using classical embedding techniques is shortened from 6 weeks to 3.7 days by refining the preparation/polymerization processes involved with no loss of osteological data. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Osteocyte lacuno‐canalicular microstructure across the mid‐shaft femur in adult males from medieval England

“…Not only can this be used as a complementary method to the bone exterior shape and size data, but histological analyses can also be applied to fragmented human remains where the external anatomy is compromised (Crescimanno & Stout, 2012; Cuijpers, 2006; Cummaudo et al, 2019; Haas & Storå, 2015; Lemmers, Gonçalves, Cunha, Vassalo, & Appleby, 2020). On the basis of our data, future researchers may be able to estimate which anatomical region a mid‐shaft femoral fragment derives from.…”

A quantitative histological comparison of ground human bone preparation techniques

“…These remains were donated to the school for research purposes and fall under the South African Human Tissues Act. Cadavers were used because Beauchesne and Saunders (2006) and Haas and Stora (2014) had very little success using Maat et al's (2001) manual grinding method to prepare very fragile bone samples. Beauchesne and Saunders (2006) also indicated that modern bone and archaeological bone of good preservation would be best suited for the manual method and defined good preservation as "bone that had not been greatly affected by taphonomic changes, thereby maintaining much of its original mineral and organic composition and thus its stiffness and strength" (Beauchesne and Saunders, 2006: 84).…”

“…Qualitative comparisons between an automated and Maat et al's (2001) manual grinding technique were investigated by Beauchesne and Saunders (2006) where each technique was found directly comparable to one another using both modern bone and archaeological bone of good preservation. For very fragile bone samples, the automated technique produced higher quality sections compared to the manual grinding technique (Beauchesne and Saunders, 2006;Haas and Stora, 2014). Although modern bone and well preserved archaeological bone were found qualitatively equivalent for the two techniques, a quantitative analysis comparing an automated grinding technique to Maat et al's (2001) manual grinding technique has not been attempted.…”

“…Additional instructions for fragile bone are also given using cyanoacrylate glue ("Super Glue") as an embedding medium. Recently many researchers have compared Maat et al's (2001) manual grinding method to other grinding techniques (Beauchesne and Saunders, 2006;Martiniakova et al, 2006;Haas and Stora, 2014) and utilised the technique to investigate histochemical staining to diagnose pathological changes (de Boer et al, 2012b(de Boer et al, , 2013 and age-at-death (Maat et al, 2006;Kim et al, 2007;Keough et al, 2009) with reasonable success. Beauchesne and Saunders (2006) tested Maat et al's (2001) method by producing high quality bone sections quickly and affordably from archaeological bones of good preservation for histological research purposes.…”

Diagnostic dry bone histology in human paleopathology

“…A relatively quick, easy and cheap method provides a solution for less equipped laboratories (Maat et al, 2001). With modifications, the method is also suitable for fragile or even cremated remains (Maat et al, 2001;De Boer et al, 2013a;Haas and Storå, 2015). The destructive sampling that is inevitably needed for histological analysis may be seen as a hard to overcome necessity.…”