Publications by authors named "Giampaolo Piga"
Article Synopsis
- Heat exposure can alter skeletal measurements, complicating biological profiling of unknown individuals, and this study explores using chemometry and infrared spectroscopy to assess these changes and improve sex estimation.
- The research involved burning bones from 41 known adult skeletons at different temperatures, measuring changes before and after, and analyzing samples to find correlations that help predict heat-induced changes.
- Results showed strong correlations between infrared indices and metric changes, with regression models proving more effective for estimating changes and determining sex than traditional osteometric methods.
Article Synopsis
- The study aims to differentiate between burned and fossilized bones using vibrational spectroscopy techniques, particularly focusing on infrared analysis.
- Researchers examined various samples, including modern and archeological bones, to understand how high temperatures (over 800 °C) affect their composition and identify specific infrared signals.
- Findings suggest that while burned bones display distinct hydroxyl (OH) signals, these signals are rare in fossil samples, indicating differences in their crystallinity and potentially ruling out burning as a factor for some fossilized specimens.
Enchondromas occur with an estimated modern incidence rate of 27.7% of benign bone tumors (Hauben and Hogendoorn, 2010), but few are represented in the paleopathological record. The medieval site of St.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In ancient times, maternal mortality would occur frequently, particularly during labor. Evidence of dystocia resulting in the death of a pregnant woman is very infrequent in paleopathologic literature, with only a few cases being demonstrated.
Case: In the early medieval site of Casserres, the skeleton of a young woman with a fetus in the pelvic region was found.
The necropolis of S'Illot des Porros, one of the most important prehistoric funerary sites of the Balearic Islands (Spain), was in use from the VIth and Vth century BCE until the Ist century CE. Located in a funerary area which contains two cementeries and one sanctuary, this site is constituted by three funerary chambers named A, B and C, respectively. Investigations on all the human burnt bone remains of the chambers, carried out mainly by the X-ray diffraction and supplemented in some cases by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy pointed to the simultaneous use of inhumation and cremation funerary rites, probably due to existing social differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn view of the difficulties in extracting quantitative information from burned bone, we suggest a new and accurate method of determining the temperature and duration of burning of human remains in forensic contexts. Application of the powder X-ray diffraction approach to a sample of human bone and teeth allowed their microstructural behavior, as a function of temperature (200-1000 degrees C) and duration of burning (0, 18, 36, and 60 min), to be predicted. The experimental results from the 57 human bone sections and 12 molar teeth determined that the growth of hydroxylapatite crystallites is a direct and predictable function of the applied temperature, which follows a nonlinear logistic relationship.
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