Interesting thread. A quick check in WoS and these two references popped up - they look relevant, one for the process and one for a means of measuring soil pH... My guess is JAS & Jrnl of Taphonomy, Jrnl Forensic Science will have similar...
best of luck
C.M. Nielsen-Marsh and R.E.M. Hedges, Patterns of diagenesis in bone: I: The effects of site environments. Journal of Archaeological Science 27 (2000), pp. 1139-1150.
H. Matthiesen, In situ measurement of soil pH, Journal of Archaeological Science 31 (2004) 1373-1381.
Prof. Ariane Burke,
Dept. d'anthropologie,
Université de Montréal,
C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville
Montreal, QC
Canada, H3C 3J7
Tel. 514-343-6574 Fax. 514-343-2494
http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/burkea/
________________________________
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites on behalf of Jean-Denis Vigne
Sent: Tue 2010-06-01 2:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] soil acidity and bone survival
Dear Sylvia,
when I did my PhD in Corsica, where acid soils are very frequent, a
made a lot of measurements of the soil, and tempted to correlate them
with the bone preservation. The result is that bones are preserved in
acid soils mostly where there are accumulations of charcoals or big
amounts of seashells, which locally increase the pH. This is published in:
*VIGNE J.-D.**,* 1988 : /Les Mammifères post-glaciaires de Corse/,
/étude Archéozoologique/ ( XXVIe suppl. à Gallia Préhistoire), CNRS éd.,
Paris, 337 p.
see pH in the index.
I have to mention that if you want to do such a systematic measurement,
you have to measure the total pH of the soil, which cannot be done with
a simple pH paper. You should follow a lab protocol in such a way that
all the H3O+ ions which are trapped in the sediment will be liberated in
the water that you will measure, and use a pH measurer.
Best
JD
--
Jean-Denis VIGNE
Dr HDR, Directeur de Recherche au CNRS
Directeur de l'UMR 7209
Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique :
Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnement
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle - CNRS (InEE)
Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité
CP 56, 55 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris
tél.: 33 (0)1 40 79 33 10
fax: 33 (0)1 40 79 33 14
Sylvia Warman wrote:
>
>
>
> Hello Zooarchers
>
>
>
> I have noticed that there is tendency to put down poor survival of
> animal bone to the acidity of the soil in an area. This is often
> established by a glance at a geological map.
>
>
>
> I am sure there must be studies of bone survival where the soil Ph has
> actually been measured.
>
>
>
> Can anyone point me towards an example of this?
>
>
>
> Many Thanks
>
>
>
> Sylvia
>
>
>
>
>
> Sylvia Warman
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