Collagen analysis detects human bone in Paleolithic ornaments
HELSINKI, FINLAND-Live Science says that Kristiina Mannermaa from the University of Helsinki studied with her colleagues dental and bone artifacts found in the 1930s from Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, an 8,200-year-old cemetery located on an island in northwestern Russia in Lake Onega. Bone collagen testing of 37 objects revealed that at least 12 of them were made from human remains, and at least two of them were made from the same human femur. Mannermaa said these ornaments appear to have been quickly carved and have notched ends to which a string can be attached. They were also similar in size and shape to ornaments made from bear, elk and beaver teeth, believed to be recorders or rattles sewn into the beads of cloaks or coats. Human bone ornaments may have been made to replace lost animal teeth, he added. “It gives the impression that when a person or an animal died, they didn’t see that much difference in the body and parts,” Mannermaa said. The human bone ornaments came from three graves, two of which contained the remains of an adult man and one of which contained the remains of an adult man and a child. Mannermaa and his team are now comparing human bone ornaments to animal bone ornaments to see if they were created in the same way. Researchers can also try to extract DNA from the ornaments and the people buried with them to see if they are related. To read about bone remains from Bronze Age Britain, including a human femur fashioned into a musical instrument, go to “Bronze Age memorabilia.”