Selective biodegradation in hair shafts derived from archaeological, forensic and experimental contexts

Wilson, A. S.; Dodson, Hilary I.; Janaway, Robert C.; Pollard, A. M.; Tobin, Desmond J.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2133.2007.07973.x

Cited by 68 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The inner part of hair has disappeared. Indeed, the least structurally robust components collapse first, as they afford the lower resistance to microbial/chemical attack as previously shown (Wilson 2007).…”

Section: Imágenes Sem De Las Partículas Adheridas En La Superficie Dementioning

confidence: 59%

Archaeological and Contemporary Human Hair Composition and Morphology

Lory

Bosch²,

Menéndez³

et al. 2011

Chungará (Arica)

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Contemporary and mummy hair samples are characterized and compared, using modern chemical and physical characterization methods. It is found that in cave conditions mummy hair can be preserved even if it interacts with environmental dirt or soil, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy results. Hair is an ion exchanger and the exposure to earth and water can facilitate the interaction of some elements with hair as shown by X-ray fluorescence, energy dispersive spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis. Post mortem degradation is detected through the reaction of cystine and through the partial collapse of the scale arrangement. The mummy hair scales become less ordered and the hair surface less smooth, such features were clearly observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The presented interdisciplinary results show that alteration of hair initiates in the core but scales are often well preserved. The features found in mummy hair suggest that the correlation between chemical composition and health or nutrition of ancient people should be carefully evaluated due to environmental contamination.Key words: Hair, mummy, human, scalp, cuticle, cortex, keratin. Muestras de pelo de momia y también contemporáneo se compararon y caracterizaron por métodos espectroscópicos y fisicoquí-micos. Se encontró que el pelo de la momia en una cueva se puede conservar, incluso si interactúa con el medio ambiente o la suciedad del suelo. El cabello es un intercambiador de iones y la exposición a la tierra y el agua puede facilitar la interacción de algunos elementos con el pelo como se mostró por fluorescencia de rayos X, espectroscopía de energía dispersiva y análisis

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Section: Imágenes Sem De Las Partículas Adheridas En La Superficie Dementioning

confidence: 59%

Archaeological and Contemporary Human Hair Composition and Morphology

Lory

Bosch²,

Menéndez³

et al. 2011

Chungará (Arica)

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“…Hair fibers may suffer microbiological degradation (Wilson et al, 2007), and compounds contained in hair may undergo diagenetic transformations; for example, long-term effects of weather factors such as sun, rain and wind have been shown to damage hair with subsequent impacts on drug concentration in it (Skopp et al, 1997). Given the prevailing extreme desertic conditions in SPA, hair of mummies from SPA has not been exposed to such microbiological and climatic factors.…”

Section: Absence Of Tryptaminesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Nicotine in the hair of mummies from San Pedro de Atacama (Northern Chile)

Echeverría

Niemeyer

2013

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…This suggests that the structural breakdown of the hair initiated from the cuticle and proceeded to the cortex. The sequence of the structural breakdown of the fibres, the lack of tunnelling, grooving, and the presence of many intact structural hair components suggests the limited activity of fungi which mediate most of these alterations in degraded hair shafts (DeGaetano et al, 1992;Rowe, 1997;Wilson et al, 2007a).…”

Section: Biodegradation Of the Erythrocytes And The Hairmentioning

confidence: 99%