FTIR analysis of a selection of human and animal bones and teeth and mud brick fragments excavated from Locus 338.

One fragment of cemented wall of the pit, one tooth and 21 bone fragments (fauna and human) retrieved from Locus 338 were analyzed by FTIR to assess the temperature to which they were heated (Table 1, Figs 11 and 12). By using FTIR it is in fact possible to assess if bone and tooth mineral and material containing clay minerals such as kaolinite and smectite were exposed to temperatures above 500° C [72, 73]. Aliquots of a few micrograms of material were scraped from each sample, powdered and mixed with 5mg of KBr. Using a PikeTM hand-press. The mixture was pressed into a 7mm die and analyzed with a Thermo Nicolet iS5 FTIR spectrometer. FTIR spectra were collected by performing 32 scans with a resolution of 4cm-1 wavenumbers. The FTIR spectra were analyzed using Omnic software and the SFU Geo-archaeology Laboratory FTIR spectral reference library.