Radiocarbon dating of VIRI bone samples using ultrafiltration

Abstract

Ultrafiltration can effectively remove low-molecular-weight (LMW) contaminants from bone gelatin to extract high-molecular-weight (HMW) proteins that are derived from original bone collagen, though it cannot remove HMW collagen crosslinked with humic acids. Therefore, ultrafiltration is often used to obtain more accurate 14C dates of bones. However, ultrafiltration may introduce new contaminants to bone gelatins, mainly from ultrafilters used. To study the effects of ultrafiltration on 14C age, we analyzed the C/N ratio, δ13CPDB and δ15NAIR values, and 14C ages of acid-soluble bone collagen obtained by decalcification, gelatin extracted from acid-insoluble bone collagen, and the HMW gelatin and LMW fractions produced during ultrafiltration of the extracted gelatin. Bone samples from the Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (VIRI) were used: VIRI-E (mammoth), -F (horse), -G (human), and -I (whale).In this study, carbon and nitrogen content and gelatin yields were used to evaluate collagen preservation in the VIRI bone samples. Radiocarbon ages, δ13CPDB and δ15NAIR values of unfiltered and HMW gelatins were obtained and compared with the published consensus values. The LMW fraction was found to exhibit different values from those of the other fractions, indicating the possible presence of extraneous contamination. The Vivaspin™ 6 ultrafilters used in this study were analyzed and radiocarbon dated both before and after cleaning. We present evidence to suggest that LMW fraction contaminants could be derived from the ultrafilters rather than humic substances. Excessively long ultrafiltration time was suspected to have contaminated the bone samples with material from the ultrafilter, because those samples exhibited older 14C ages than did those filtered for shorter durations. The results in this study indicate that 14C ages of unfiltered gelatin extracted from well-preserved bones can be sufficiently accurate, and that care should be taken not to contaminate bone gelatin during ultrafiltration. Additional studies investigating bones with different degrees of degradation are needed to determine the effectiveness of ultrafiltration for accurate 14C dating when the collagen is not so well preserved.