One big perks of being based at Elettra for my project? The chance to squeeze in a few extra measurements outside of official proposals—if there’s an open slot between scheduled users. And of course, we’re not going to say no to that!
Together with my colleagues Marko Prasek, Elena Longo and Paula Sanchez, we’ve been making the most of our weekends and late evenings to scan samples whenever the opportunity arises. This time, I had a few remaining samples from a fascinating prehistoric context—burned skeletal remains.
One of the key signatures we’re investigating is bioerosion, which indicates that bones were buried before being cremated. While conventional histology has demonstrated that bioerosion can be distinguished from burning alterations (Lemmers et al., 2020), challenges remain—especially in the mid-temperature range, where bacterial tunneling and carbon inclusions can be tricky to differentiate.
Could tomography provide the solution? Well… stay tuned! We’ve got some exciting results coming soon—keep an eye on the publications page for updates. 😊
🔬 In-house beamtime tests in progress…