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Ion Beam Analysis: Analytical Applications
Published in Vlado Valković, Low Energy Particle Accelerator-Based Technologies and Their Applications, 2022
Radiocarbon dating has been well-established field for more than a half century. The potential applications of this method are limited by the large amount of carbon needed for measurement. The AMS allows one to reduce sample size from typical a few grams to as little as 50 µg. This has opened many new possibilities of AMS applications.
Case Investigation
Published in Kevin L. Erskine, Erica J. Armstrong, Water-Related Death Investigation, 2021
Carbon-14 or radiocarbon dating is a naturally occurring isotope of the element carbon, continually being formed in the atmosphere. Trace amounts of radioactive carbon are found in the natural environment. It is unstable and minutely radioactive. Carbon-14 dating was first used by archaeologists to estimate the age of certain objects between 500 and 50,000 years old. Radiocarbon content of terrestrial organisms is not the same as those of marine organisms because of the marine reservoir effect. Correction factors of the marine reservoir effect for different oceans in the world are established and recorded in a database. This procedure has recently found its way into technology to identify skeletal remains or other unidentified human remains. Nuclear weapons testing over the past 60 years has stirred up environmental levels of Carbon-14. From 1955 to 1963, levels almost doubled, and since that period of time, the levels have been tapering off to more normal.
The Smallpox Story
Published in Rae-Ellen W. Kavey, Allison B. Kavey, Viral Pandemics, 2020
Rae-Ellen W. Kavey, Allison B. Kavey
Then in 2016, excavation of the crypt of a seventeenth-century Lithuanian church recovered the mummified body of a child. Radiocarbon dating yielded an estimated date of death between 1643 and 1665 AD. Analysis of genetic material allowed development of a complete Variola genome.47 The lineage was found to have the same pattern of gene degradation as twentieth-century Variola strains, but the gene sequence recovered from the mummified body was shown to be the predecessor of all the known Variola genomes. This important finding strongly suggests that genetic diversification of the smallpox virus is a relatively recent phenomenon with the major known viral lineages appearing between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The researchers concluded that the smallpox lineages which caused disease in the twentieth century had only been in existence for approximately 200 years. These findings do not preclude an ancient history for smallpox, as earlier viral lineages could have disappeared because of natural selection, host resistance to older variants or random chance.48 They do mean, however, that the exact origin of the smallpox virus remains a mystery.
More data on ancient human mitogenome variability in Italy: new mitochondrial genome sequences from three Upper Palaeolithic burials
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2021
Alessandra Modi, Stefania Vai, Cosimo Posth, Chiara Vergata, Valentina Zaro, Maria Angela Diroma, Francesco Boschin, Giulia Capecchi, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli, Giulio Catalano, Gabriele Lauria, Giuseppe D'Amore, Luca Sineo, David Caramelli, Martina Lari
Paglicci Cave is located on the western side of the Gargano promontory in Apulia (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, Italy). The site attests a human frequentation between the Middle Palaeolithic and the Final Epigravettian, and the Upper Palaeolithic sequence is one of the most complete in southern Europe. Since 1961, the numerous field excavations allowed the discovery of abundant lithic and large mammal assemblages (Boschin et al. 2018; Boschin et al. 2020 and references therein), and art objects (Mezzena and Palma di Cesnola 2004; Arrighi et al. 2008; Arrighi et al. 2012). Paglicci also yielded the only Upper Palaeolithic wall paintings known in Italy so far (Zorzi 1963; Arrighi et al. 2012), and additionally, the site provided the most ancient evidence of plant-food manipulation and flour consumption (Mariotti Lippi et al. 2015). Regarding human fossil records, the cave yielded more than 100 isolated remains (Condemi et al. 2014) as well as one partial Late Epigravettian and two complete Evolved Gravettian burials belonging to one female adult individual (Paglicci 25 from the burial Paglicci III, found in layer 21B) and one adolescent (Paglicci 12, PA12, from the burial Paglicci II, found at the base of layer 21 D) (Ronchitelli et al. 2015; Fu et al. 2016; Posth et al. 2016). aDNA analysis was performed on the right petrous bone collected from individual PA12. Radiocarbon dating performed on 21 D archaeological level, locates the sample between 29,750 and 27,872 cal. BP (24,720 ± 420 uncal. BP, F-55) (Ronchitelli et al. 2015).
Tuberculosis and leprosy associated with historical human population movements in Europe and beyond – an overview based on mycobacterial ancient DNA
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2019
M. africanum has been detected in human remains alongside M. tuberculosis in ancient Egypt, during the Middle Kingdom period in Thebes-West (Zink et al. 2007) and confirmed by molecular typing. However, M. bovis aDNA in humans has been detected only in a small group of Iron Age pastoralists in South Siberia who overwintered with their animals (Taylor et al. 2007). Radiocarbon dating yielded dates from ∼1761–2199 years BP. The question of whether tuberculosis existed in the Americas prior to European contact has been of particular interest. Much excitement was generated when three 1000-year-old mycobacterial genomes from Peruvian human skeletal remains were found to be distinct from typical human strains and more similar to those associated with seals and sea lions (Bos et al. 2014). However, there is currently no evidence of pre-contact tuberculosis elsewhere in the Americas.
Diversity in matrilineages among the Jomon individuals of Japan
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2023
Fuzuki Mizuno, Yasuhiro Taniguchi, Osamu Kondo, Michiko Hayashi, Kunihiko Kurosaki, Shintaroh Ueda
In our previous study (Mizuno et al. 2020), the human remains were uncovered from individual burial pits, Iyai 1, 4, and 8, from the Iyai rock-shelter site in Gunma Prefecture, central Honshu, Japan (see Kondo et al. 2018 for details). Here, we analysed the following four ancient human remains from Iyai 3, 10, 12, and 15: the left femur from Iyai 3, the right petrous bone from Iyai 12, left petrous bone from Iyai 15, and left petrous bone and left femur from Iyai 10. These four human remains were uncovered from individual burial pits and were in close proximity and from the same layer as that of Iyai 1 (Figure 1). Radiocarbon dating for Iyai 1 showed a calibrated date of 8300–8200 cal BP (Kondo et al. 2018), belonging to the later part of the Initial Jomon period.