These boots are made for burnin’: Inferring the position of the corpse and the presence of leather footwears during cremation through isotope (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt skeletal remains
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These boots are made for burnin’ : Inferring the position of the corpse and the presence of leather footwears during cremation through isotope (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt skeletal remains. / Salesse, Kevin; Stamataki, Elisavet; Kontopoulos, Ioannis; Verly, Georges; Annaert, Rica; Boudin, Mathieu; Capuzzo, Giacomo; Claeys, Philippe; Dalle, Sarah; Hlad, Marta; de Mulder, Guy; Sabaux, Charlotte; Sengeløv, Amanda; Veselka, Barbara; Warmenbol, Eugène; Vercauteren, Martine; Snoeck, Christophe.
In: PLoS ONE, Vol. 16, No. 10, e0257199, 2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - These boots are made for burnin’
T2 - Inferring the position of the corpse and the presence of leather footwears during cremation through isotope (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt skeletal remains
AU - Salesse, Kevin
AU - Stamataki, Elisavet
AU - Kontopoulos, Ioannis
AU - Verly, Georges
AU - Annaert, Rica
AU - Boudin, Mathieu
AU - Capuzzo, Giacomo
AU - Claeys, Philippe
AU - Dalle, Sarah
AU - Hlad, Marta
AU - de Mulder, Guy
AU - Sabaux, Charlotte
AU - Sengeløv, Amanda
AU - Veselka, Barbara
AU - Warmenbol, Eugène
AU - Vercauteren, Martine
AU - Snoeck, Christophe
N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2021 Salesse et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more 18O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ18Ocarb values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ18Ocarb values of shoed feet of about 1.4 between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite.
AB - Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more 18O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ18Ocarb values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ18Ocarb values of shoed feet of about 1.4 between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0257199
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0257199
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 34644308
AN - SCOPUS:85117229596
VL - 16
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 10
M1 - e0257199
ER -
ID: 285518125