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Revisiting the potential of carbonized grain to preserve biogenic 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures within the burial environment
Author(s) -
Styring A. K.,
Evans J. A.,
Nitsch E. K.,
LeeThorp J. A.,
Bogaard A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/arcm.12398
Subject(s) - leaching (pedology) , isotopes of strontium , isotope , strontium , carbonization , geology , mineralogy , environmental chemistry , archaeology , chemistry , geochemistry , environmental science , soil water , soil science , geography , nuclear physics , physics , organic chemistry , adsorption
Strontium (Sr) isotope analysis of archaeological crops is a potential method of provenancing and identifying the movement of crops in the past, but there remains uncertainty about whether original 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values can be obtained from carbonized buried grains. We have determined that hydrochloric acid (HCl) leaching removes some, but not all, exogenous Sr from carbonized cereal grains buried in soil for up to one year. We conclude that while further work could refine the leaching method, Sr isotope analysis of archaeological cereal grains can distinguish crops sourced from outside a particular (e.g., local) area if it can be shown that leaching moves grain 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values significantly away from the expected Sr signature.