re: Reburial in the Marine environment
To amplify Dennis Piechota's comments, our preliminary findings were
that preservation environments in sediments in littoral systems, even
when permanently submerged, can vary considerably over short distances
(at m scale oxidation rates vary by a factor of ten or more). To make
matters worse, standard redox monitors based on Platinum probes were
useless due to poisoning of the Pt by sulphide present in most (all?)
anoxic sediments (the results had no bearing on the known redox
properties of 'made up' sediments even under lab conditions). Other
probe materials appeared to give reliable redox measurements and info
about redox 'buffering strength' which would be valuable pieces of info,
but our research is incomplete.
In consequence, the only way of doing it is to have sacrificial material
to carry out destructive tests on, as Dennis says. If you have no prior
knowledge of the reburial environment, unfortunately, this includes you 'archaeology'.
Barry Kaye
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