علم و مردگان. نمونه‌برداری تخریبی از بقایای انسانی باستان‌شناسی برای تحلیل علمی

Scientific analyses involving destruction of samples of bones or teeth from human remains are widely used in archaeology. Institutions responsible for curating archaeological human remains in the long or medium term, principally museums, university departments and commercial archaeological contractors, are increasingly receiving requests from researchers to sample remains in their care. Clegy and others responsible for historic churchyards and other burial grounds are also receiving an increasing number of requests from those wishing to exhume ancient burials for research purposes. The purpose of this document is to provide a framework to help organisations in responding to such requests.This document represdents an update to the first edition of Science and the Dead, published in 2013. This edition is intended not only to reflect advances that have taken place in scientific techniques but also in other areas. The remit remains as before, skeletal remains more than 100 years old from burial sites in England.Legal and ethical considerations pertaining to destructive sampling for the purposes of scientific research are set out. There then follow sections devoted to some of the more commonly applied techniques: radiocarbon dating, stable isotopic analyses to study ancient diets, isotopic analyses to study geographical origins of people, ancient DNA studies, proteomics (the study of proteins), and microscopy. In each of these sections, the science behind the technique is summarised, the sorts of information that it can yield are outlined and the bone or tooth samples that are likely to be needed are described. Some case studies are then given for illustrative purposes. Executive summary 1. Introduction 2. Considerations for destructive sampling 2.1 Legal considerations 2.2 Ethical considerations 2.3 Scientific considerations 3. Radiocarbon dating 3.1 The science 3.2 What can we learn from radiocarbon dating? 3.3 Sampling for radiocarbon dating 4. Stable isotopes and ancient diets 4.1 The science 4.2 What can we learn about diet from stable isotope analysis? 4.3 Sampling for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope work 5. Stable isotopes and geographical origins of people in the past 5.1 The science 5.2 What can we learn about mobility from stable isotope studies? 5.3 Sampling dental enamel for isotopic analysis 6. DNA 6.1 The Science 6.2 What can we learn from aDNA? 6.3 Sampling for aDNA 7. Proteomics 7.1 The Science 7.2 What can we learn from proteomics? 7.3 Sampling for proteomics 8. Microscopy 8.1 The science 8.2 What can we learn from the microscopic study of bones and teeth? 8.3 Sampling for microscopic studies 9. Case studies 9.1 The human remains held at St Peter’s Church, Barton-upon-Humber 9.2 Exhumation of remains thought to be of particular historical individuals 9.3 Multidisciplinary study of a museum collection 10. Further Reading 11. Where to get advice 12. Acknowledgements