Heat-induced Bone Diagenesis Probed by Vibrational Spectroscopy

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, M. P. M.
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Mamede, A. P., Vassalo, A. R., Makhoul, C., Cunha, E., Gonçalves, D., Parker, S. F., Carvalho, L. A. E. Batista de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/84319; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34376-w

Complementary vibrational spectroscopic techniques – infrared, Raman and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) – were applied to the study of human bone burned under controlled conditions (400 to 1000 °C). This is an innovative way of tackling bone diagenesis upon burning, aiming at a quantitative evaluation of heat-induced dimensional changes allowing a reliable estimation of pre-burning skeletal dimensions. INS results allowed the concomitant observation of the hydroxyl libration (OHlibration), hydroxyl stretching (ν(OH)) and (OHlibration + ν(OH)) combination modes, leading to an unambiguous assignment of these INS features to bioapatite and confirming hydroxylation of bone’s inorganic matrix. The OHlib, ν(OH) and ν4(PO43−) bands were identified as spectral biomarkers, which displayed clear quantitative relationships with temperature revealing heat-induced changes in bone’s H-bonding pattern during the burning process. These results will enable the routine use of FTIR-ATR (Fourier Transform Infrared-Attenuated Total Reflectance) for the analysis of burned skeletal remains, which will be of the utmost significance in forensic, bioanthropological and archaeological contexts.