Abstract
The concentration of strontium and other trace elements in bones of living humans and animals reflect the levels in the environment (Underwood 1977, Rheingold et al. 1983, Price et al. 1985b). Historic and prehistoric bones may thus contain information on past environments. The chemical composition of bones that have been buried for a long period may, however, have changed by diagenetic processes, which result in the loss of information. The concentrations of some of the trace elements in bones appear to be fairly stable and may remain almost unchanged for very long periods of contact between bone and soil.
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Runia, L. (1988). Discrimination Factors on Different Trophic Levels in Relation to the Trace Element Content in Human Bones. In: Grupe, G., Herrmann, B. (eds) Trace Elements in Environmental History. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73297-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73297-3_5
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