Bone collagen is an important material for radiocarbon, paleodietary, and paleoproteomic analyses, but it degrades over time, making such analyses more difficult with older material. Collagen preservation between and within archaeological sites is also variable, so that much time, effort, and money can go into the preparation and initial analysis of samples that will not yield meaningful results. To avoid this, various methods are employed to prescreen bone for collagen preservation (e.g., %N, microporosity, and FTIR spectroscopic analyses), but these are often destructive and/or require exportation for analysis. Here, we explore near-infrared spectroscopy as a tool for gauging the collagen content of ground and whole bone from about 500 to 45,000 years ago. We show that a portable spectrometer's ability to quantify collagen content and classify specimens by preservation status is comparable to that of other popular prescreening methods. Moreover, near-infrared spectroscopy is non-destructive and spectra can be acquired in a few seconds.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6763469PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50443-2DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

bone collagen
12
collagen preservation
8
near-infrared spectroscopy
8
collagen content
8
collagen
6
saving bones
4
bones non-destructive
4
non-destructive method
4
bone
4
method bone
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!