Detection of diagenetic alterations by Spectroscopic Analysis on Archaeological Bones from the Necropolis of Poseidonia (Paestum): A case study (original) (raw)

2009, Journal of Cultural Heritage

Understanding the chemical and physical alteration in archaeological bones, occurred after burial, is very interesting for researchers. In this paper, we present a study on the diagenetic alteration of human archaeological bony tissues from Paestum (South Italy), by combining complementary spectroscopic techniques, such as solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared spectroscopy (IR), and X-ray diffraction. In particular, 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance-cross polarization-magic angle spinning ( 13 C NMR CP-MAS) spectroscopy allows to identify and discriminate the adsorbed calcite, that is a diagenetic contaminant, from the structural one of apatite and 1 H NMR-MAS spectroscopy shows how the degradation of organic phase of collagen is related to the time. The NMR data are combined with crystalline index, measured by X-ray diffraction, and with the splitting factor obtained by infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, the evaluation of the relative content of biogenic structural carbonate and of diagenetic fluorine is reported.

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