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Human bones recovered from the archaeological site of Pontecagnano (Salerno, Italy) have been studied to reconstruct the diet of an Etrurian population. Two different areas were investigated, named Library and Sant’ Antonio , with a total of 44 tombs containing human skeletal remains, ranging in age from the 8 th to the 3 rd century B.C. This time span was confirmed by 14 C dating obtained using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) on one bone sample from each site. Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) was used to extract information about the concentration of Sr, Zn, Ca elements in the bone inorganic fraction, whilst stable isotope ratio measurements (IRMS) were carried out on bone collagen to obtain the δ 13 C and δ 15 N. A reliable technique has been used to extract and separate the inorganic and organic fractions of the bone remains. Both IRMS and AAS results suggest a mixed diet including C 3 plant food and herbivore animals, consistent with archaeological indications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Centre for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental heritage (CIRCE) has, recently, obtained some promising results in testing the feasibility of mortar radiocarbon dating by means of an ad hoc developed purification procedure (CryoSoniC: Cryobraking, Sonication, Centrifugation) applied to a series of laboratory mortars. Observed results encouraged CryoSoniC accuracy evaluation on genuine mortars sampled from archeological sites of known or independently constrained age (i.e., other 14C dates on different materials). In this study, some 14C measurements performed on genuine mortars will be discussed and compared with independently estimated (i.e., radiocarbon/archaeometrical dating) absolute chronologies of two Spanish sites. Observed results confirm the agreement of the CryoSoniC mortar dates with the archaeological expectations for both examined cases. Several authors reported the possibility of obtaining accurate radiocarbon dates of mortar matrices by analyzing lime lumps: binder-related particles of different sizes exclusively composed of calcium carbonate. In this paper, preliminary data for the absolute chronology reconstruction of the Basilica of the cemetery complex of Ponte della Lama (Canosa di Puglia, Italy) based on lime lumps will also be discussed. Dating accuracy will be quantified by comparing 14C data on mortar lime lumps from a funerary inscription of known age found near the Basilica, in the same study site. For this site, a comparison between absolute chronologies performed by bulk and CryoSoniC purified lime lumps, and charcoal incased in mortars (when found) will also be discussed. Observed results for this site provide evidence of how bulk lime lump dating may introduce systematic overestimations of the analyzed sample while CryoSoniC purification allows accurate dating. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Radiocarbon concentration in atmosphere changes overtime due to anthropogenic and natural factors. Species growth preserves the local atmospheric radiocarbon signature over their life span in the annual tree rings and make it possible to use tree rings for the monitoring of changes in fossil-fuel emissions due to an increase of traffic exhaust, during the last decades. In this paper, the CIRCE AMS system has been used to measure the 14C concentration in tree rings of plants grown near an industrial area and a very busy State Road, in a forest in north Italy. Preliminary results related to tree rings of several years of plants respectively near and far the emitting sources are displayed, in order to estimate the local pollution effect. It is possible to find a dilution in years 2000 and 2006 in both the trees analysed, but not enough data have been analysed yet in order to distinguish the fossil dilution derived from the street vehicular traffic or that from the industries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]