Further Tests of the EDTA Treatment of Bones

A new suite of five dates on a whale rib from Varangerfjord was completed on different fractions obtained by EDTA treatment. The intention was to test the possible influence of contaminants, the criteria for complete reactions, and the reliability of the treatment in light of scattered values obtain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiocarbon
Main Author: Olsson, Ingrid U
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2000
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200053042
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200053042
Description
Summary:A new suite of five dates on a whale rib from Varangerfjord was completed on different fractions obtained by EDTA treatment. The intention was to test the possible influence of contaminants, the criteria for complete reactions, and the reliability of the treatment in light of scattered values obtained earlier on samples from Varangerfjord. The yield on the treatment of the selected bone did, however, not allow any general conclusions regarding the influence of contaminants in nature. The results are interesting from an inter-sample comparison point of view. Included are observations, made during treatment, of pH and color changes as well as the appearance of the samples. These observations are provided as a reference for deciding when the treatment is complete.