Fundamentals of Bone Degradation Chemistry: Collagen is Not "The Way"

From the 13th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, June 20-25, 1988.Collagen-based pretreatment methods for bone yield inconsistent results for those samples where protein preservation is low, as frequently found in bones from the semi-arid zones of Australia and North America. New methods for dealing with low collagen bones are needed, and this paper suggests that the non-collagenous proteins, particularly the blood proteins, may offer advantages for AMS dating because of their better preservation. Amino-acid profiles of collagen and non-collagenous proteins suggest that such differential preservation may be due to physico-chemical differences, and help to explain the poor results from dating low-collagen bones.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202