Bone samples suffer in a particular way of contamination and deterioration, depending on their conservation state and previous restoring and consolidation processes. Often they do not produce CO2, with a waste of time, sample and material. In the sample preparation laboratory of the CEDAD (Center for Dating and Diagnostics) of the University of Lecce we are studying a quality control protocol based on FTIR spectroscopy. By this technique it is possible to identify the collagen presence and its quality. We applied infrared spectroscopy both to the collagen extracted from hosteological samples and to the samples themselves. The quality control of the samples following the standard preparation treatment is carried out on the collagen dried after the filtration: there is a relationship between the presence of collagen in the FTIR spectrum and the production of CO2. A second aim of this work was to shift the quality control test from filtration step to a check-in treatment, in order to optimize the time for preparation and the amount of sample needed for AMS measurement, as in the case in which an integration is required. We carried out a preliminary study on modern fresh collagen, to evaluate mass needed for FTIR measurement in order to reduce to the minimum the amount of ancient sample required. We tested also different fast demineralization treatments, to get the collagen signal in times shorter than standard ones. The measurements were carried out also on ancient samples to verify which are the best conditions for real archaeological samples and to set up a standard fast demineralization treatment. Then we applied it to a variety of ancient samples of different origin and age, in order to test its effectiveness as an entrance test for hosteological samples.
See more of Poster Session II
See more of The 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (September 5-10, 2005)