TY - JOUR
T1 - Substantiating microCT for diagnosing bioerosion in archaeological bone using a new Virtual Histological Index (VHI)
AU - Mandl, Kirsten
AU - Carlson, Kellie Sara Duffett
AU - Brönnimann, David
AU - McCall, Ashley
AU - Grassberger, Martin
AU - Teschler-Nicola, Maria
AU - Weiss-Krejci, Estella
AU - Metscher, Brian
N1 - Funding Information:
K.M. would like to thank Cordula Portmann and especially Magdalena Müller-Gerbl, Peter Zimmermann, Mirelle Toranelli, and Andreas Ochsenbein from the Anatomy University Basel, Switzerland, for training and support during thin section preparation. Thanks are also extended to Maciej Karwowski, Jarosław M. Czubak, Michaela Fritzl, Franz Pieler, Veronika Holzer, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, and the Austrian Federal Monuments Office for providing the archaeological samples. We kindly thank Mihaela Pavličev for granting access to the microCT scanners at the Unit for Theoretical Biology in the Department for Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna. Scanning electron microscopy was performed at the Core Facility of Cell Imaging and Ultrastructure Research (CIUS), University of Vienna, member of the Vienna Life-Science Instruments; we therefore kindly thank Daniela Gruber and Siegfried Reipert. Thanks are extended to Irene Lichtscheidl and her team from the CIUS facility for her major support and for providing the light microscope. K.M. and K.S.D.C. would particularly like to thank Marishka, Lilly, and Grögar, without whom this paper would not be possible. We would like to thank Suzanne Freilich for comments and suggestions. Lastly, we would also like to thank the reviewers for their comments and careful, critical reading of the manuscript, which added significant clarity to the paper, improving our identification, and broadening our understanding, of micro-taphonomic effects.
Funding Information:
Open access funding provided by University of Vienna. This paper is part of a dissertation project and sponsored by the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE) 2021-Completion Grant of the University of Vienna awarded to K.M. Thin section preparation was funded by the DEEPDEAD project (Deploying the Dead: Artefacts and Human Bodies in Socio-Cultural Transformations) under the HERA Joint Research Programme “Uses of the Past” (UP) (Collaborative Research Project (CRP) no. 15.055) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 649307.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Recent technological advances have broadened the application of palaeoradiology for non-destructive investigation of ancient remains. X-ray microtomography (microCT) in particular is increasingly used as an alternative to histological bone sections for interpreting pathological alterations, trauma, microstructure, and, more recently, bioerosion with direct or ancillary use of histological indices. However, no systematic attempt has been made to confirm the reliability of microCT for histotaphonomic analysis of archaeological bone. The objective of this study is therefore to compare thin sections of human femora rated with the Oxford Histological Index to microCT sections using the newly developed Virtual Histological Index in order to provide an accessible methodology for the evaluation of bioerosion in archaeological bone. We provide detailed descriptions of virtual sections and assess the efficacy of the method on cranial and postcranial elements, cremated long bones, and faunal samples. The traditional histological and virtual methods showed a strong correlation, providing the first systematic data substantiating lab-based microCT as a suitable alternative tool for reconstructing post-mortem history in the archaeological record, and for the reliable, non-destructive screening of samples for further analyses.
AB - Recent technological advances have broadened the application of palaeoradiology for non-destructive investigation of ancient remains. X-ray microtomography (microCT) in particular is increasingly used as an alternative to histological bone sections for interpreting pathological alterations, trauma, microstructure, and, more recently, bioerosion with direct or ancillary use of histological indices. However, no systematic attempt has been made to confirm the reliability of microCT for histotaphonomic analysis of archaeological bone. The objective of this study is therefore to compare thin sections of human femora rated with the Oxford Histological Index to microCT sections using the newly developed Virtual Histological Index in order to provide an accessible methodology for the evaluation of bioerosion in archaeological bone. We provide detailed descriptions of virtual sections and assess the efficacy of the method on cranial and postcranial elements, cremated long bones, and faunal samples. The traditional histological and virtual methods showed a strong correlation, providing the first systematic data substantiating lab-based microCT as a suitable alternative tool for reconstructing post-mortem history in the archaeological record, and for the reliable, non-destructive screening of samples for further analyses.
KW - Bioanthropology
KW - Bioerosion
KW - Bone histology
KW - Histotaphonomy
KW - MicroCT
KW - Mortuary archaeology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132660477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12520-022-01563-w
DO - 10.1007/s12520-022-01563-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132660477
SN - 1866-9557
VL - 14
JO - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
JF - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
IS - 6
M1 - 104
ER -