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

Figure 1

Samples of purple stained bone (a) and normal bone (b) taken from the parietal region of the respective crania. The bone samples both show the view of the outer table. The upper left of the purple stained sample and the lower right corner of the normal sample show cross sections through the diploe to the inner table. There is no variation of coloration through the full thickness of the purple stained specimen. This lack of variation makes it difficult to see the transition from outer table to diploe in photographs. The diploic zone lies between the two solid arrows. The normal specimen shows a typical variable intensity brownish color on the outer table. This color change is largely localized to the outer table. The diploe and inner table show much paler slight brownish tints differing from the natural white color of human bone.

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(b)

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