These boots are made for burnin': Inferring the position of the corpse and the presence of leather footwears during cremation through isotope (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt skeletal remains.

Kevin Salesse,Elisavet Stamataki,Marta Hlad,Ioannis Kontopoulos,Barbara Veselka,Martine Vercauteren,Guy De Mulder,Mathieu Boudin,Eugène Warmenbol,Georges Verly,Christophe Snoeck,Philippe Claeys,Sarah Dalle,Rica Annaert,Charlotte Sabaux,Amanda Sengeløv,Giacomo Capuzzo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0257199

Abstract

Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more 18O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ18Ocarb values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5‰. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ18Ocarb values of shoed feet of about 1.4‰ between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P ≥ 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite.

Highlights

Cremation is a complex process that has been performed in a wide range of geographic and cultural contexts from prehistory to present day [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8], involving a chain of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after cremation [9, 10]
This study aims to better understand past cremation practices and related funerary rituals by identifying the initial positioning of the corpse deposited on/in a pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13Ccarb and δ18Ocarb) and infrared (ATR-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains
The present study demonstrates that the initial positioning of feet, and thereby of the individual, as well as the wearing of closed leather shoes, and by extrapolation of clothing items, are plausible parameters that can explain these geographical and chronological variations

Summary

Introduction

Cremation is a complex process that has been performed in a wide range of geographic and cultural contexts from prehistory to present day [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8], involving a chain of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after cremation [9, 10]. In open-air cremations, the manipulation of the corpse during the burning process is conditioned, mainly but , by its initial positioning in the pyre, and by the presence of clothing (shroud, garments, etc.), both of which can affect the efficiency of combustion in a variety of ways. The handling of the corpse, its positioning and dressing, may differ from one individual and/or population to another depending on many factors, such as the biological and social status of the deceased [28,29,30,31,32], the religious beliefs and cultural practices of the participants in the funerary event [24, 32,33,34], and/or the expertise of the cremation operators [35]. Identifying the positioning and dressing of the corpse improves understanding of past societies that practiced cremation as a funeral ritual

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