Mercury in human bones and burial context: an osteoarchaeological approach

Abstract

The relationship between humans and mercury pollution is investigated from a paleo-pollution perspective. We study the mercury content variability in Roman and post-Roman individuals, the skeletal mercury variability, the role of bone components in bone mercury content, the burial soil mercury distribution and the processes behind it, the bone-soil mercury relationship, and the role of skeletons and burial soil in mercury cycle. We confirmed skeletons as suitable paleo-archives, bodies as sources of mercury to the soil, that ante-mortem exposure affects intra- and inter-skeletal mercury variability, that context and location affect mercury burial distribution, the ante- and post-mortem origin of skeletal mercury, the minor role of soil on bone mercury, and that skeletons and burial soils play a role in mercury cycle.