Mineralised organic remains from cesspits at the Roman town of Silchester: Processes and preservation

Rapid deterioration in buried leather: archaeological implications

“…The role of post-burial perimineralisation on long term survival of non-mineral organic material like plant remains and coprolites have been researched in detail 22,23,[45][46][47][48] and shown that elemental cementation can carry an important role for the preservation of vegetable-tanned leather. Possibly, a role for post-burial elemental accumulation in leather samples, impacted by the charge of the vegetable-tannin species present in the leather, could be important for long-term stability.…”

“…However, well-established research has shown that a higher presence of calcium and phosphorous in carnivore faeces (scat), as opposed to mostly organic molecules in herbivore dung, has been associated with a better long-term preservation of scat biomolecules. 47 The notion of a material role for manufacture-dependent elemental presence in vegetable-tanned leather prior to burial onset, introduced through either the tannin material elemental chemistry, tanning liquid or time spent in it, has however not been explored in detail.…”

Assessing diet and seasonality in the Lower Pecos canyonlands: an evaluation of coprolite specimens as records of individual dietary decisions

“…More recently, IR has been employed to study the chemical composition of mineralized human feces (Allen et al 2002;Marshall et al 2008;Shearer 1988;Sutton et al 2010). One study detected apatite consistent with bone in all the coprolites analyzed (Allen et al 2002).…”

Some Notes on Dense Structures Present in Archaeological Plant Remains: X-ray Fluorescence Computed Tomography Applications

“…The presence of exogenous minerals coating and permeating archaeobotanical specimens has frequently been reported for sites where specific environmental/contextual characteristics allowed mineralization, principally the abundance of dissolved ions and some fluctuating presence of water [6][7][8]. Mineralization involves the gradual replacement of biological tissues with minerals which can naturally occur at different stages of the remains' deposition and early diagenesis.…”

“…It has been also studied as a potentially distortive agent for radiocarbon dating of archaeobotanical material [14]. Compounds with Cu, Fe, and phosphates have already been observed in coatings that prevent the progression of various degradation mechanisms in plant remains [7,[10][11][12]15,16]. Other mineral substances, such as silicates, carbonates, gypsum, and calcite, might also have fulfilled similar performances when present in the sedimentary substrate and/or other items in ancient deposits [13].…”