The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects

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The taphonomy of cooked bone : characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects. / Roberts, S. J.; Smith, C. I.; Millard, A.; Collins, M. J.

In: Archaeometry, Vol. 44, No. 3, 2002, p. 485-494.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Roberts, SJ, Smith, CI, Millard, A & Collins, MJ 2002, 'The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects', Archaeometry, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080

APA

Roberts, S. J., Smith, C. I., Millard, A., & Collins, M. J. (2002). The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects. Archaeometry, 44(3), 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080

Vancouver

Roberts SJ, Smith CI, Millard A, Collins MJ. The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects. Archaeometry. 2002;44(3):485-494. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080

Author

Roberts, S. J. ; Smith, C. I. ; Millard, A. ; Collins, M. J. / The taphonomy of cooked bone : characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects. In: Archaeometry. 2002 ; Vol. 44, No. 3. pp. 485-494.

Bibtex

@article{7731a996fff34ea6b1b87c676283cf9b,
title = "The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects",
abstract = "Cooking is perhaps the most common pre-burial taphonomic transformation that occurs to bone, yet it is still one of the least understood. Little progress has been made in determining a method of identifying cooked bone in the archaeological record, despite its import for various branches of archaeology. This paper attempts to describe boiling in terms of its physico-chemical effects on bone, and uses a suite of diagenetic indicators to do this. It is shown that cooking for brief periods of time has little distinguishable effect on bone in the short term, but that increased boiling times can mirror diagenetic effects observed in archaeological bone. The relationship between the loss of collagen and alterations to the bone mineral is explored through heating experiments, and the results compared with archaeological data. The possibility of boiling being used as an analogue for bone diagenesis in future studies is raised, and the key relationship between protein and mineral is once again highlighted as vital to our understanding of bone diagenesis.",
keywords = "Boiling, Bone, Collagen, Crystallinity, Diagenesis, Porosity",
author = "Roberts, {S. J.} and Smith, {C. I.} and A. Millard and Collins, {M. J.}",
year = "2002",
doi = "10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080",
language = "English",
volume = "44",
pages = "485--494",
journal = "Archaeometry",
issn = "0003-813X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The taphonomy of cooked bone

T2 - characterizing boiling and its physico-chemical effects

AU - Roberts, S. J.

AU - Smith, C. I.

AU - Millard, A.

AU - Collins, M. J.

PY - 2002

Y1 - 2002

N2 - Cooking is perhaps the most common pre-burial taphonomic transformation that occurs to bone, yet it is still one of the least understood. Little progress has been made in determining a method of identifying cooked bone in the archaeological record, despite its import for various branches of archaeology. This paper attempts to describe boiling in terms of its physico-chemical effects on bone, and uses a suite of diagenetic indicators to do this. It is shown that cooking for brief periods of time has little distinguishable effect on bone in the short term, but that increased boiling times can mirror diagenetic effects observed in archaeological bone. The relationship between the loss of collagen and alterations to the bone mineral is explored through heating experiments, and the results compared with archaeological data. The possibility of boiling being used as an analogue for bone diagenesis in future studies is raised, and the key relationship between protein and mineral is once again highlighted as vital to our understanding of bone diagenesis.

AB - Cooking is perhaps the most common pre-burial taphonomic transformation that occurs to bone, yet it is still one of the least understood. Little progress has been made in determining a method of identifying cooked bone in the archaeological record, despite its import for various branches of archaeology. This paper attempts to describe boiling in terms of its physico-chemical effects on bone, and uses a suite of diagenetic indicators to do this. It is shown that cooking for brief periods of time has little distinguishable effect on bone in the short term, but that increased boiling times can mirror diagenetic effects observed in archaeological bone. The relationship between the loss of collagen and alterations to the bone mineral is explored through heating experiments, and the results compared with archaeological data. The possibility of boiling being used as an analogue for bone diagenesis in future studies is raised, and the key relationship between protein and mineral is once again highlighted as vital to our understanding of bone diagenesis.

KW - Boiling

KW - Bone

KW - Collagen

KW - Crystallinity

KW - Diagenesis

KW - Porosity

U2 - 10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080

DO - 10.1111/1475-4754.t01-1-00080

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:0036668908

VL - 44

SP - 485

EP - 494

JO - Archaeometry

JF - Archaeometry

SN - 0003-813X

IS - 3

ER -

ID: 232090680