Abstract
Human provenance studies employing isotope analysis are essential in archaeological and forensic sciences but current applications provide limited spatial resolution. This study reports on the potential of neodymium isotope composition (143Nd/144Nd) to improve human provenancing capabilities. Human tissues contain very low (<0.1 ppm) neodymium concentrations, such that previous composition analysis was not possible. Additionally, Nd composition analysis in human enamel is hindered by Ca in the sample matrix. A modified Nd chromatographic separation technique is reported here, which removes large Ca quantities and accommodates large sample sizes (300-1000 mg). Verification of the modified chromatographic procedure was achieved using an internal synthetic tooth standard. These advancements allow for high precision Nd isotope composition analysis on ∼500 mg of tooth enamel, or >100 pg of Nd, by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) using 1013 Ω resistors. Neodymium concentrations in enamel from third molars of modern Dutch residents range between 0.1-21.0 ppb (n = 23). The 143Nd/144Nd values for Amsterdam (0.51204-0.51259, n = 12) and Rotterdam (0.51187-0.51239, n = 8) are significantly different (P value = 0.02), demonstrating the potential of neodymium isotope composition to provide improved spatial resolution. Further assessment of Nd composition in enamel of residents from other geological contexts is required to better understand the human provenance capabilities of neodymium.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2391-2400 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Early online date | 30 Oct 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2017 |
Funding
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement n° 319209 and would not have been possible without the donations of teeth that was facilitated by the Vrije Uni-versiteit's Medical Centre (VUMC) in Amsterdam, Ikazia Hospital and Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. The Nederlands Tandartsenblad is thanked for advertising our request to collect extracted teeth. The Medical Ethics Review Committee of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam is thanked for evaluating the sampling request (IDIS 2010/265). This paper was improved by the valuable feedback of Joshua Peterson and anonymous reviewers.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Seventh Framework Programme | 319209 |
| European Research Council | |
| Seventh Framework Programme |