Multi analytical technique study of human bones from an archaeological discovery.
In 1953, during the building restoration of San Michele church (Bono, Sardinia, 16th-19th Century), a high number of disarticulated skeletons were recovered. From a group of 412 hip bones, two of these, affected by several pathological lesions, were analysed. The two coxal bones can be referred to the same individual, an adult man. A multi-analytical study, started with the purpose of investigating the bone pathology, was extended to characterize the mineral components of a large representative set of bones from the same ossuary, all attributed to adult men who lived in the region four-two centuries ago. A quantitative ICP-AES analysis for Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb and Zn was executed, and a chemometric investigation on the results was performed. This approach gave evidence of the effects of diagenesis, allowed some hypothesis of the incidence of the known dietary habits on bone composition, and completely differentiated the pathological bones from those of a normal population on the basis of the mineral composition. Moreover, porosity, crystallinity and FT-IR analysis were conducted on both non- and pathological sample.
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. Electronic address: lachowicz@unica.it.
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Lachowicz
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy.
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Palomba
Università Degli Studi di Cagliari, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Chimica e Dei Materiali (DIMCM), Via Marengo, 2, Cagliari, Italy.
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Meloni
Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
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Carboni
Dipartimento di Chimica e Farmacia, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
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Sanna
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell Ambiente, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy.
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Floris
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell Ambiente, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy.
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Pusceddu
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell Ambiente, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, I-09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy.
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Sarigu
D000328:Adult; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008903:Minerals / Q000032:analysis*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
D008903:Minerals