Technical Note: Post-burial alteration of bones: Quantitative characterization with solid-state 1H MAS NMR

Alberto Viani; Petra Mácová; Dita Machová; Gregor Mali

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110783

Technical Note: Post-burial alteration of bones: Quantitative characterization with solid-state ¹H MAS NMR

Forensic Sci Int. 2021 Apr 10:323:110783. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110783. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Alberto Viani¹, Petra Mácová², Dita Machová², Gregor Mali³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Centre Telč, Prosecká 809/76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic. Electronic address: viani@itam.cas.cz.
² Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Centre Telč, Prosecká 809/76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic.
³ National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

PMID: 33878550
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.110783

Abstract

The identification of markers of the modifications occurring in human bones after death and of the sedimentary and post-sedimentary processes affecting their state of preservation, is of interest for several scientific disciplines. A new index, obtained from spectral deconvolution of the ¹H MAS NMR spectra of bones, relating the number of organic protons to the amount of hydrogen nuclei in the OH^- groups of bioapatite, is proposed as indicator of the state of preservation of the organic fraction. In the osteological material from three different archaeological sites, this index resulted positively correlated with the extent of collagen loss derived from infrared spectroscopy. Its sensitivity to changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of bone allows to identify distinct diagenetic pathways specific to each site and to distinguish different trajectories within the same site.

Keywords: Archaeological bones; Bone diagenesis; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Taphonomy.