Research Article

Purple Staining of Archaeological Human Bone: An Investigation of Probable Cause and Implications for Other Tissues and Artifacts

Table 2

Hitachi SEM EDX results showing a crude indication of elemental composition. The high level of carbon in the data arises from the use of carbon coating on the prepared specimens. This was done in order to minimize charging effects on otherwise nonconducting specimens.

Atomic%NormalPurple

C 22.38 15.93
Ca 6.94 11.07
P 5.12 8.21
S 0.27 0.10
Cl 0.00 0.42
Na 0.00 0.42
O 65.29 63.96
Ca/P ratio 1.355 1.348