Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T00:05:24.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Review of Current Approaches in the Pretreatment of Bone for Radiocarbon Dating by AMS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

R. E. M. Hedges  and
G. J. Van Klinken
R. E. M. Hedges
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, UK
G. J. Van Klinken
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Although the reliability of 14C dates of bone has increased greatly since AMS methods permitted better pretreatment on smaller samples, most old, badly contaminated or severely weathered bone still give serious problems. Several groups have recently proposed improvements to sample purification methods, often supported by a number of 14C measurements. We present here an overview of these improvements. The issue is complicated by the following:

  1. 1. Different problems are presented depending on age, preservation and degree of contamination of bone.

  2. 2. Methods may or may not be developed with routine application in mind.

  3. 3. Determining the conditions for which any method can be regarded as reliable is not at all straightforward.

Type
I. Sample Preparation and Measurement Techniques
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 34 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 14th International Radiocarbon Conference , 1992 , pp. 279 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Ajie, H. O., Kaplan, I. R., Hauschka, P. V., Kirner, D., Slota, P. J. Jr. and Taylor, R. E. 1992 Radiocarbon dating of bone osteocalcin: Isolation and characterizing a non-collagen protein. Radiocarbon, this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ajie, H. O., Kaplan, I. R., Slota, P. J. and Taylor, R. E. 1990 AMS radiocarbon dating of bone osteocalcin. In Yiou, F. and Raisbeck, G. M., eds., Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B52 (3,4): 433–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrose, S. A. 1990 Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17: 431–451.Google Scholar
Berk, Z. 1976 Braverman's Introduction to the Biochemistry of Foods. Amsterdam, Elsevier Scientific Publications: 149–167.Google Scholar
Brown, T. A., Nelson, D. E., Vogel, S. J. and Southon, J. R. 1988 Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30(2): 171–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cattaneo, C., Gelsthorpe, K., Phillips, P. and Sokol, R. J. 1990 Blood in ancient human bone. Nature 347:339.Google Scholar
DeNiro, M. 1985 Post-mortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to paleodietary reconstruction. Nature 317: 806–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeNiro, M. J. and Weiner, S. 1988a A chemical, enzymatic and spectroscopic characterization of “collagen” and other organic fractions from prehistoric bones. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 2197–2206.Google Scholar
DeNiro, M. J. and Weiner, S. 1988b Organic matter within crystalline aggregates of hydroxyapatite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 2415–2423.Google Scholar
DeNiro, M. J. and Weiner, S. 1988c Use of collagenase to purify collagen from prehistoric bones for stable isotopic analysis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 4360–4367.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R. 1989 Fundamentals of bone degradation chemistry: Collagen is not “The Way.” In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31(3): 239–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, R. and Hedges, R. E. M. 1983 Sample chemistry for the Oxford high energy mass spectrometer. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 11th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 25(2): 771–774.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R., Hedges, R. E. M. and Humm, M. J. 1986 Routine AMS dating of bone and shell proteins. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 11th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28 (2A): 451–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, R., Hedges, R. E. M. and Wand, J. O. 1984 Radiocarbon dating of bone by accelerator mass spectrometry. Journal of Archaeological Science 11: 165–170.Google Scholar
Gurfinkel, D. M. 1987 Comparative study of the radiocarbon dating of different bone collagen preparations. Radiocarbon 29(1): 45–52.Google Scholar
Hauschka, P. V. 1980 Osteocalcin; A specific protein of bone with potential for fossil dating. In Hare, P. E., Koering, T. C. and King, K., eds., Biochemistry of Amino Acids. New York, John Wiley & Sons: 75–82.Google Scholar
Hedges, R. E. M., Housley, R. A., Law, I. A. and Perry, C. 1988 Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system. Datelist 7. Archaeometry 30: 155–164.Google Scholar
Hedges, R. E. M. and Law, I. A. 1989 The radiocarbon dating of bone. Applied Geochemistry 4: 249–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, I. A. and Hedges, R. E. M. 1989 A semi-automated bone pretreatment system and the treatment of older and contaminated samples. In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31(3): 247–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, I. A., Housley, R. A., Hammond, N. and Hedges, R. E. M. 1991 Cuello: Resolving the chronology through direct dating of conserved and low-collagen bone by AMS. Radiocarbon 33(3): 303–315.Google Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J. A., Sealy, J. C. and Merwe, N. J. van der 1989 Stable carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and bone apatite and their relationship to diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 585–601.Google Scholar
Long, A., Wilson, A. T., Ernst, R. D., Gore, B. H. and Hare, P. E. 1989 AMS dating of bones at Arizona. In Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 13th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 31 (3): 231–239.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971 New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230: 241–242.Google Scholar
Masters, P. M. 1987 Preferential preservation of noncollagenous protein during bone diagenesis: Implications for chronometric and stable isotopic measurements. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 51: 3209–3214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, D. E. 1991 A new method for carbon isotopic analysis of protein. Science 251: 552–554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olsson, I. U., El-Daoushy, M. F. A. F., Abd-El-Mageed, A. I. and Klasson, M. 1974 A comparison of different methods for pretreatment of bones. I. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 96: 171–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stafford, T. W., Brendel, K. and Duhamel, R. C. 1988 Radiocarbon, 13C and 15N analysis of fossil bone: Removal of humates with XAD-2 resin. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 2257–2267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stafford, T. W., Duhamel, R. C., Haynes, C. V. and Brendel, K. 1982 Isolation of proline and hydroxyproline from fossil bone. Life Sciences 31: 931–938.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stafford, T. W., Hare, P. E., Currie, L., Jull, A. J. T. and Donahue, D. J. 1991 Accelerator radiocarbon dating at the molecular level. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 35–73.Google Scholar
Stafford, T. W., Jull, A. J. T., Brendel, K., Duhamel, R. C. and Donahue, D. 1987 Study of bone radiocarbon dating accuracy at the University of Arizona (NSF) Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis. Radiocarbon 29(1): 24–44.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E. 1980 Radiocarbon dating of Pleistocene bone: Toward criteria for the selection of samples. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 10th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 22 (3): 969–979.Google Scholar
Tuross, N. 1989 Albumin preservation in the Taimataima mastodon skeleton. Applied Geochemistry 4: 255–261.Google Scholar
Ulrich, M. M. W., Perizonius, W. R. K., Spoor, C. F., Sandberg, P. and Vermeer, C. 1987 Extraction of osteocalcin from fossil bones and teeth. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 149: 7112–7119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Klinken, G. J. and Hedges, R. E. M. 1992a (ms.) Radiocarbon dating of collagenase peptides isolated from fossil bone collagen by reversed-phase and ion-exchange chromatography. Ms. in preparation.Google Scholar
van Klinken, G. J. and Hedges, R. E. M. 1992b Experiments on 14C dating of contaminated bone using peptides resulting from enzymatic cleavage of collagen. Radiocarbon, this issue.Google Scholar
van Klinken, G. J. and Mook, W. G. 1990 Preparative high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of individual amino acids derived from fossil bone collagen. Radiocarbon 32(2): 155–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, S. and Bar-Yosef, O. 1990 States of preservation of bones from prehistoric sites in the Near East: A survey. Journal of Archaeological Science 17: 187–196.Google Scholar