Mapping diagenesis in archaeological human bones

Heritage Science

Table 2 Concentrations in µg g⁻¹ and relative standard deviations (RSD in % = 1 σ/concentration * 100) for femoral cortical bone from modern (D35) and archaeological (Svendborg, A85 and AG134; Ribe K1147, K1029, and K1256) individuals

	D35		AG134		A85		K1147		K1029		K1256		Ribe soil
	KLR-10977		KLR-10236		KLR-8348		KLR-10516		KLR-10831		KLR-10810		Ribe soil
	CONC	RSD	CONC	RSD	CONC	RSD	CONC	RSD	CONC	RSD	CONC	RSD	CONC
Ca, wt%	25.9	1.87	23.5	1.94	24.5	0.91	25.0	2.02	27.2	1.59	29.5	1.67	4.34
Zn, µg g⁻¹	101.0	2.70	103.9	1.10	109.8	3.51	384.7	2.65	537.0	4.39	116.8	2.92	81.9
Na, µg g⁻¹	7931	1.02	4297	3.30	4051	1.27	3643	4.56	4007	2.29	4176	3.83	621
Mg, µg g⁻¹	3077	2.33	1224	3.20	920	2.35	832	3.23	986	3.26	1069	2.86	618
Sr, µg g⁻¹	128	0.60	395	1.09	206	0.37	207	0.45	265	0.28	406	0.48	109
Ba, µg g⁻¹	5.04	0.46	408	1.12	188	0.28	14.2	0.92	20.4	0.66	9.55	0.90	104
Cu, µg g⁻¹	< 2.56		< 2.56		14.6	8.05	12.1	8.39	23.0	4.79	11.3	10.9	141
Pb, µg g⁻¹	2.87	0.65	24.9	0.95	6.21	1.26	184	0.64	41.7	0.29	7.96	0.61	190
Fe, µg g⁻¹	9.62	6.66	7959	1.42	14156	2.60	463	5.53	415	11.3	35.3	25.8	6300
Mn, µg g⁻¹	4.92	0.33	2686	0.94	1557	0.71	178	0.15	1144	0.60	6.23	0.19	400

Two samples have Cu concentrations below LOQ, as established through more than 6 months of measurements using in-house medieval and NIST SRM-1486 bone standards. The last column provides average concentrations for 78 soil samples from the Ribe cemetery treated identically to the bone samples