A test of the revised Frost's ‘rapid manual method’ for the preparation of bone thin sections

A recent publication by Maat et al . (2001) introduces a modification of Frost's earlier ‘rapid manual method’ for ground bone thin section preparations, which uses ‘surface embedding’ with cyanoacrylate for sample protection. This revised method is said to provide a quick, inexpensive system for producing thin sections from archaeological specimens with a finished quality equivalent to more involved and equipment‐intensive methods. Our study conducted a test comparing Maat et al .'s method with the standard technique that uses vacuum embedding media. A number of samples were tested, including modern bone samples from the dissecting room as well as archaeological samples in differing states of preservation. The results were highly favourable for a large majority of the specimens. For both modern and archaeological bone, Maat et al .'s revised method produced images of equivalent quality to samples prepared using embedding media. However, poor preservation of the specimens is still an issue, and only relatively dense, intact specimens hold up to the physical demands of the manual grinding procedure. This paper also adds a number of refinements to Maat et al .'s methodology. Future refinement of this technique would greatly facilitate large‐scale sampling and encourage more osteological researchers to use histomorphometric analysis of archaeological hard tissues. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.