Effects of Sodium Hydroxide Treatment and Ultrafiltration on the Removal of Humic Contaminants from Archaeological Bone

Szpak, Paul; Krippner, K.; Richards, Michael P.

doi:10.1002/oa.2630

Cited by 37 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…While recent experimental research has confirmed that ultrafiltration does not have a meaningful impact on removal of a number of key contaminants (e.g. lipids, Guiry, Szpak, et al, 2016; humic acids, Szpak, Krippner, & Richards, 2017), there has been little research investigating the effects of ultrafiltration on the removal of NCPs from collagen extracts (although see Wadsworth & Buckley, 2018). However, as shown in Table 4, nearly all major NCPs present in bone, including osteonectin (32 kDa; Termine et al., 1981) osteopotinin (44 kDa; Rangaswami, Bulbule, & Kundu, 2006) and bone sialoprotein (33–34 kDa; Ganss et al., 1999) are too large for removal through ultrafiltration (even at the 30 kDa MWCO).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality control for modern bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements

2020

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Isotopic analyses of collagen, the main protein preserved in subfossil bone and tooth, has long provided a powerful tool for the reconstruction of ancient diets and environments. Although isotopic studies of contemporary ecosystems have typically focused on more accessible tissues (e.g. muscle, hair), there is growing interest in the potential for analyses of collagen because it is often available in hard tissue archives (e.g. scales, skin, bone, tooth), allowing for enhanced long‐term retrospective studies. The quality of measurements of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of ancient samples is subject to robust and well‐established criteria for detection of contaminants and diagenesis. Among these quality control (QC) criteria, the most widely utilized is the atomic C:N ratio (C:NAtomic), which for ancient samples has an acceptable range between 2.9 and 3.6. While this QC criterion was developed for ancient materials, it has increasingly being applied to collagen from modern tissues. Here, we use a large survey of published collagen amino acid compositions (n = 436) from 193 vertebrate species as well as recent experimental isotopic evidence from 413 modern collagen extracts to demonstrate that the C:NAtomic range used for ancient samples is not suitable for assessing collagen quality of modern and archived historical samples. For modern tissues, collagen C:NAtomic falling outside 3.00–3.30 for fish and 3.00–3.28 for mammals and birds can produce systematically skewed isotopic compositions and may lead to significant interpretative errors. These findings are followed by a review of protocols for improving C:NAtomic criteria for modern collagen extracts. Given the tremendous conservation and environmental policy‐informing potential that retrospective isotopic analyses of collagen from contemporary and archived vertebrate tissues have for addressing pressing questions about long‐term environmental conditions and species behaviours, it is critical that QC criteria tailored to modern tissues are established.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality control for modern bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements

2020

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“…Demineralized samples were then neutralized in type I water. To remove base-soluble contaminants resulting from diagenetic processes in the archaeological burial environment, samples were subjected to a series of 0.1 M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treatments in an ultrasonic bath (NaOH solution refreshed every 15 min) until solution remained clear [ 28 ]. Collagen was then solubilized in a pH3 solution (pH adjusted with HCl) for 48 h at 65°C.…”

Section: Context Materials Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban rats have less variable, higher protein diets

Guiry

Buckley

2018

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Over the past 1000 years, rats (Rattus spp.) have become one of the most successful and prolific pests in human society. Despite their cosmopolitan distribution across six continents and ubiquity throughout the world's cities, rat urban ecology remains poorly understood. We investigate the role of human foods in brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) diets in urban and rural areas over a 100 year period (ca AD 1790–1890) in Toronto, Canada using stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analyses of archaeological remains. We found that rat diets from urban sites were of higher quality and were more homogeneous and stable over time. By contrast, in rural areas, they show a wide range of dietary niche specializations that directly overlap, and probably competed, with native omnivorous and herbivorous species. These results demonstrate a link between rodent diets and human population density, providing, to our knowledge, the first long-term dietary perspective on the relative value of different types of human settlements as rodent habitat. This study highlights the potential of using the historical and archaeological record to provide a retrospective on the urban ecology of commensal and synanthropic animals that could be useful for improving animal management and conservation strategies in urban areas.

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“…Collagen from bones and teeth is typically the only protein that is abundantly available for archaeological analyses and, for this reason, its compositional and diagenetic properties have received considerable attention (DeNiro, 1985;Brown et al, 1988;Szpak, 2011;Guiry et al, 2016c;Szpak et al, 2017). Considering the unique growth properties of bone collagen, it may seem unreasonable that some of the following sections focus discussion on factors that cause isotopic shifts in freshwater resources on a sub annual or seasonal basis.…”

Section: Differences Between Bone Collagen and Other Tissuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexities of Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Biogeochemistry in Ancient Freshwater Ecosystems: Implications for the Study of Past Subsistence and Environmental Change

Guiry

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of human and animal tissues have become an important means of studying both anthropogenic and natural food webs in aquatic ecosystems. Within the rapidly expanding field of human and animal paleodietary analyses, archaeologists routinely incorporate isotopic data from fish, birds, and aquatic mammals into their interpretations of ancient freshwater resources use; however, these studies rarely consider the complex and dynamic nature of the carbon and nitrogen cycles that give structure to nutrient regimes and their isotopic compositions in freshwater ecosystems. This review outlines two thematic areas in which this surge in stable isotope applications to the study of ancient human societies could be enhanced by incorporating concepts from limnology, ecology, and biology. First, building on studies conducted in modern ecosystems, this paper outlines key aspects of the stable isotope ecology of freshwater environments, highlighting the importance of considering physical and biological processes associated with ancient biogeochemical cycles when conducting human paleodietary reconstructions. Second, this paper discusses areas where isotopic analyses of archaeological freshwater animal remains could contribute to broader research fields including climate change and cultural eutrophication research, human impacts on long-term food web dynamics and animal behavior, and by providing novel approaches to reconstructing ancient fish management practices.

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Effects of Sodium Hydroxide Treatment and Ultrafiltration on the Removal of Humic Contaminants from Archaeological Bone

Cited by 37 publications

References 29 publications

Quality control for modern bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements

Quality control for modern bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements

Urban rats have less variable, higher protein diets

Complexities of Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Biogeochemistry in Ancient Freshwater Ecosystems: Implications for the Study of Past Subsistence and Environmental Change

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