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If bone is considered as a composite of collagen (protein) and bioapatite (mineral), then three pathways of diagenesis are identified: (1) chemical deterioration of the organic phase; (2) chemical deterioration of the mineral phase; and (3) (micro) biological attack of the composite. The first of these three pathways is relatively unusual and will only occur in environments that are geochemically stable for bone mineral. However, because rates of biomolecular deterioration in the burial environment are slow, such bones would yield useful biomolecular information. In most environments, bones are not in thermodynamic equilibrium with the soil solution, and undergo chemical deterioration (path 2). Dissolution of the mineral exposes collagen to biodeterioration, and in most cases the initial phase of dissolution will be followed by microbial attack (path 3). Biological attack (3) also proceeds by initial demineralization; therefore paths 2 and 3 are functionally equivalent. However,in a bone that follows path 3 the damage is more localized than in path 2, and regions equivalent to path 1 may therefore exist outside these zones of destruction. Other biomolecules, such as blood proteins, cellular lipids and DNA, exist within the physiological spaces within bone.For these biomolecules, death history may be particularly important for their survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagenetic alteration to archaeological bone can cause significant disruption to both the biogenic mineral structure and the preservation of biomolecular resources such as protein and DNA over archaeological time. We report here the use of a technique, small-angle X-ray scattering, which makes it possible to examine the alteration to the mineral surface due to diagenesis. This method has previously been applied to archaeological bone thin sections, but has been modified in this case for use on bone powder as a high-throughput screening technique for bone preservation. Our results show that mineral structural change is not necessarily reflected in the currently used methods of measuring lattice perfection, and that the preservation of archaeological biomolecules may be linked to structural alteration as much as to crystallinity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]