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Establishing collagen quality criteria for sulphur isotope analysis of archaeological bone collagen

Bibliographic Data

ID5372910
AuthorsOlaf Nehlich (0000-0002-4993-5013, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), Michael P Richards, Michael Richards (0000-0001-5274-8887, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
Year2009
Volume1
Issue1
Pages59-75
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12520-009-0003-6
OpenAlexW2064892319
LanguageEN
Citations received148
References cited64

Sulphur isotope measurements of bone collagen from archaeological sites are beginning to be applied more often, yet there are no clear criteria to assess the quality of the collagen and therefore the validity of the sulphur isotope values. We provide elemental data from different methods (DNA sequences, amino acid sequences and mass spectrometric measurements) which are used to establish a reliable system of quality criteria for sulphur isotope analyses of bone collagen. The difference in the amount of sulphur from fish and mammalian collagen type I led to the suggestion to use different criteria to assess the in vivo character of the collagen between these two categories. For establishing quality ranges, the bone collagen of 140 modern animals were analysed. The amount of sulphur in fish and mammalian bone collagen is 0.63 ± 0.08% and 0.28 ± 0.07%, respectively. Based on these results we define for mammalian bone collagen an atomic C:S ratio of 600 ± 300 and an atomic N:S ratio of 200 ± 100, and for fish bone an atomic C:S ratio of 175 ± 50 and an atomic N:S ratio of 60 ± 20. These quality criteria were then applied to 305 specimens from different archaeological contexts

Biology · Fish · Fish bone · Fishery · Isotope · Physics · Radiochemistry · Stable isotope ratio · Sulfur · Type I collagen · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Chemistry · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Endocrinology · Organic Chemistry

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Unique citing works148
Citations per year8,71
Citation span2009 - 2026 (18)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedYes
Citation typesNeutral: 142
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