Abstract
It is often assumed that cremation produces highly oxidised bone fragments that are little more than inorganic ash, but this is not the case for most prehistoric cremations. Bone fragments often display a gradient of thermal alteration, ranging from calcined through blackened to apparently unaltered. Many cremations produce bones that still contain organic matter in the form of thermally altered organics or reduced carbon. Charred bones from archaeological contexts can be expected to contain more organic carbon than uncharred bones from the same context, because reduced carbon in charred bone is more resistant to diagenetic change than uncharred collagen and other organic fractions of bone. Cremated burials would provide an abundant and promising source of paleodietary data through isotope studies if limits for applying these methods can be established.
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