Diffusion in Archaeological Bone
Résumé
This paper presents a synthesis of the state of the knowledge concerning diffusion in archaeological bone. Bone remains are often the unique witnesses of ancient societies and so an irreplaceable source of information about ages, populations, ancient diets and palaeoclimates. As their degree of conservation is highly variable and dependent on the environment, the alteration processes, especially the modifications due to transport of chemical species, should be known in order to get reliable information on the past. Analysis of the literature and experimental results allows to describe the main features of the diagenetic evolution and to determine the important parameters for an adequate diffusion model We show that a more precise interpretation of the uptake of chemical species in archaeological bone will be possible when the complex organic and mineral microstructure of bone will be understood and if more diffusion coefficients of different chemical species in bone are determined.