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Microfocus small angle x-ray scattering reveals structural features in archaeological bone samples: Detection of changes in bone mineral habit and size

Lookup NU author(s): Jennifer Hiller

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Abstract

Microfocus x-ray scattering provides a powerful nondestructive technique capable of providing important information about the size, habit, and arrangement of mineral crystals in bone. The technique is capable of probing textural differences in a sample at a micron scale resolution. The study presented here involved the analysis of a number of archaeological bones by microfocus x-ray scattering at the ESRF Grenoble in order to determine local changes in mineral durability. The results showed that regions of bone with a modified microscopic morphology contained a greater dispersion of crystal shape when compared with more intact regions and control contemporary bone samples, but the crystal thickness values showed similar consistency. We speculate that the persistence of collagen in the archaeological bone may allow diagenetic remodeling of bone in terms of crystallite shape but defines the size of remodelled crystallites. The ability to detect such local changes in texture has wide potential for determining crystal characteristics in healthy and diseased bone samples.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Wess T, Alberts I, Hiller J, Drakopoulos M, Chamberlain AT, Collins M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Calcified Tissue International

Year: 2002

Volume: 70

Issue: 2

Pages: 103-110

ISSN (print): 0171-967X

ISSN (electronic): 1432-0827

Publisher: Springer

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s002230020045

DOI: 10.1007/s002230020045

PubMed id: 11870416

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