Estimating temperature exposure of burnt bone — A methodological review

Ellingham, Sarah; Thompson, Tim; Islam, Meez; Taylor, Gillian

doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2014.12.002

Cited by 150 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…As temperature increases, the colour of bone alters from buff-coloured to dark grey and black, and then light grey and white (Munro et al, 2007). The trend is consistent across all contexts, but a straightforward correlation between colour and temperature should be viewed with caution since there are many variables that influence the colour of burned bone (Gejvall, 1969;Buikstra and Swegle, 1989;Ellingham et al, 2015). Archaeologists have also used fracture patterns to comment on whether bodies were fleshed or defleshed (decomposed) prior to burning (Baby, 1954;Binford, 1963), but caution has been advised to avoid over-interpretation (Gonçalves et al, 2011).…”

Section: Evidence Of Cremation and Its Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, cremated human remains are a prominent and long-standing feature of the archaeological funerary record and have the potential to yield important insights into past human societies. In recent years there has been a sharp increase in the number of publications that have focussed on cremation studies within the disciplines of archaeology and forensic anthropology (e.g., Ellingham et al, 2015;Gonçavles, 2012;Kuijt et al, 2014;Schmidt and Symes, 2015;Thompson, 2015a;Ubelaker, 2009). Much of this research explores new methodological approaches in forensic research, although the adoption of theoretical approaches to archaeological cremated remains has also been attempted (see, for example, Kuijt et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Death on the frontier: Military cremation practices in the north of Roman Britain

Thompson

Szigeti

Gowland

et al. 2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Abstract:The study of cremated human remains from archaeological contexts has traditionally been viewed as less valuable than the study of inhumed bodies. However, recent methodological and theoretical developments regarding the taphonomic processes that transform the human body during cremation have highlighted their potential for understanding past cultural and funerary practices. This study combines the first application of spectroscopic with more traditional methods of studying cremated bone to examine Romano-British contexts, with the aim of better understanding funerary practices along the military frontier. Five RomanoBritish military sites from northern England (Beckfoot, Carlisle, Herd Hill, Lincoln and Malton) were studied, with remains excavated from a range of cinerary urn contexts. Despite the known heterogeneity of the ethnic composition of the Roman army, analyses revealed a surprising consistency with respect to the cremation practice, implying shared knowledge of pyre procedure and, possibly, a prescribed funerary practice amongst military communities in the Roman North. The consistency within these five northern provincial sites in Britain stands in contrast to cremation contexts from Roman sites elsewhere in Europe, as well as other periods of the British past. The associated material culture recovered from these cremation deposits, however, does provide evidence for differences in dress and bodily display. This contrasts with the homogeneity of the cremation technology and highlights the importance of these individualizing features for signalling identity amongst Roman military communities in Britain.

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Section: Evidence Of Cremation and Its Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Death on the frontier: Military cremation practices in the north of Roman Britain

Thompson

Szigeti

Gowland

et al. 2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…It has been proved useful in the study of biological compounds, particularly in the assessment of the development, composition, and quality of human bones [24,25]. In the particular case of biological anthropology, its application has been important in investigations regarding the temperature estimation at which bones have been subjected to [26][27][28][29]. A FTIR spectrum obtained from bone samples provides information on the preservation of the inorganic component as well as the organic component [25,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rather yield than break: assessing the influence of human bone collagen content on heat-induced warping through vibrational spectroscopy

et al. 2016

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Warping has been used to determine the pre-burning condition of human skeletal remains. In the literature, this modification has been associated more often with the burning of fleshed and green bones, but it also arises during the burning of dry bones. The objective of this paper was to assess if bone collagen content has a significant effect on the occurrence of warping in a sample of experimentally burned human bones. The presence of collagen was analyzed in two different samples through a vibrational spectroscopy technology-FTIR. One of them was composed of 40 archeological bones from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries AD. The other one was composed of bones from 14 skeletons belonging to the 21st century identified skeletal collection. The results confirmed that the amide I band assigned to the collagen was much more intense in bones presenting heat-induced warping. Nonetheless, although significant (p = 0.040), the collagen content was not as useful as other variables to the regression model we proposed for explaining warping. Factors such as the maximum temperature (p < 0.001) and burning time (p = 0.001) contributed more significantly. Results demonstrated that the mere preservation of collagen is not enough to explain warping. Burning dynamics seem to have an important role as well although we failed to clearly document its specificities. Other factors such as the asymmetric distribution of collagen and other components within bone, the gravity force, the shape of the bone, and the position in which it is burned may also play an important role on heat-induced changes and require further analysis.

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“…Burned bones are incinerated when the thermal alteration is so prolonged and intense that all the organic materials and moisture were lost [6,7]. Estimation of the maximum exposure temperature is a crucial factor for the correct interpretation of burned bones, being the change of colour an employed method as temperature range indicator [6,8]. Colour has been described qualitatively by visual comparison with standard charts, such as the Munsell Soil Color Charts [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Colour has been described qualitatively by visual comparison with standard charts, such as the Munsell Soil Color Charts [9]. 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.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%