Bone – Lightsources.org

History written in bone: FT-IR Spectroscopy in the study of ancient cremations

2026/08/202026/09/10

A team of researchers from Poland and Portugal investigated cremated human remains recovered from prehistoric funerary urns discovered in northern Poland. Using, among other techniques, infrared spectroscopy at the CIRI beamline of the SOLARIS Centre, the scientists found that water availability within the urns played a key role in the chemical transformations occurring in bones after cremation. Their findings provide new insights into post-burial processes and contribute to a better understanding of ancient funerary practices.

Bone is a valuable source of information about the past. By studying skeletal remains, archaeologists and anthropologists can reconstruct the diet, health status, and migration patterns of ancient populations. During the Iron Age in present-day Poland, cremation was the dominant funerary practice. The cremated remains were subsequently deposited in ceramic urns or directly in the ground.

Exposure to high temperatures causes a series of physicochemical changes in bone. First, the organic components, including lipids and proteins, undergo degradation. At temperatures above 700 °C, the mineral phase of bone, known as bioapatite, recrystallizes. After burial, the degradation continues over hundreds or even thousands of years. The course of bone diagenesis is influenced by numerous factors, including time, pH, and the chemical composition of sediments filling the urns. Understanding these processes is essential for reconstructing ancient cremation practices.

A team of researchers investigated cremated human remains and associated soil sediments from four prehistoric funerary urns recovered from well-preserved cemeteries dating to the Iron Age and the Roman Period in Czarnówko and Miłoszewo, northern Poland. Two urns had intact lids, one was partially covered, and one remained uncovered.

Read more on the SOLARIS website

Image: Results of chemometric analysis of FT-IR spectra of bones from open and closed urns U1 and U3. Photograph of the cist grave from Czarnówko. Photos of urns U1 and U3.

X-raying auditory ossicles – a new technique reveals structures in record time

2026/01/122026/01/22

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have refined an X-ray diffraction technique for detecting biological structures from nanometres to millimetres – reducing the time needed to make the measurement from around one day to about an hour. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for biomedical research – from analysing bone and tissue structures to supporting the development of new implants.

Biological materials are masterpieces created by nature. Bones, for example, are extremely hard, yet at the same time elastic enough to withstand lateral forces without breaking easily. This combination of properties results from their hierarchical structure as composite materials – they combine materials that have different structures on different scales. Human-made composite materials are similar in the way they are made up. In reinforced concrete, for example, the concrete component, consisting of cement and sand, can withstand high pressure, while a steel mesh provides high tensile strength and transverse stability.

Until now, examining such biological materials in detail has required the use of several different instruments, such as electron microscopes or classic light microscopes. However, scientists at the PSI Center for Photon Science have now refined an X-ray diffraction technique that was developed at the institute ten years ago, allowing it to be used to characterise materials on scales from nanometres to millimetres simultaneously and much faster than before. A complete scan now only takes about an hour, instead of a whole day.

To demonstrate the efficiency of their method, the researchers used the Swiss Light Source SLS to reveal the alignment of collagen fibres in a human ossicle known as the incus, or anvil. Collagen fibres are thread-like protein structures that provide tensile strength and elasticity to bones. “In doing so, we have taken the leap from a scientific method to a practical technique,” says Christian Appel, postdoctoral researcher and first author of the study. The results have now been published in the journal Small Methods as its cover story. In future, this method could be valuable in areas such as the study of complex tissue, the analysis of bone diseases and the optimisation of implant designs.

Read more on the PSI website

Image: Scientists at PSI were able to observe the local collagen structures in an ossicle by scanning it with an X-ray beam. The different colours of the cylinders indicate how strongly the collagen bundles are spatially aligned in a section measuring 20 by 20 by 20 micrometres.

Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Christian Appel

The Spatial Dynamics of Bone Remodeling During Lactation

2024/10/162024/11/21

Lactation places large metabolic demands on a mother’s skeleton. To mobilize the minerals needed for milk production, osteocytes—the cells responsible for maintaining bone quality—facilitate the release of calcium and other minerals from the bone. In this study, researchers investigated how this process occurs throughout the bone during lactation and how osteocytes balance the rapid release of calcium while maintaining bone integrity.

“We know that lactation leads to significant changes in bone, but understanding how these changes occur at both the osteocyte cellular and bone structural levels was crucial,” said Claire Acevedo, an assistant professor at the University of California San Diego. Researchers from UC San Diego and UC San Francisco compared virgin and lactating mice, with and without the osteocyte-specific deletion of an enzyme (MMP13) responsible for the resorption of bone matrix surrounding the osteocytes. To visualize and quantify local changes in mouse tibias, they employed microcomputed tomography at Advanced Light Source (ALS) Beamline 8.3.2.

The team discovered that lactation-induced bone remodeling is highly spatially controlled. Osteocytes located near the bone’s vascular structures experienced significant local bone matrix resorption and calcium release, leading to a substantial increase in the volume of lacunae (i.e., cavities where osteocytes reside). In contrast, osteocytes near the bone’s outer surface showed little activity. The findings suggest that osteocytes located near vasculature, facilitating calcium transport, play a more active role in calcium mobilization during lactation.

Additionally, the researchers discovered that lactation led to the formation of hypomineralized regions 14–20 µm away from the osteocyte lacunae, particularly in larger lacunae undergoing active resorption. These hypomineralized regions, indicative of calcium removal, demonstrate that osteocytes can resorb minerals not only around the lacunae via MMP13 but also further away, at the tips of their branches (called “dendritic processes”), independent of peri-lacunar resorption and MMP13.

Read more on ALS website

Image: Representative 3D renderings of the lacunae and vasculature in mouse bones, generated using synchrotron microcomputed tomography. Vasculature is colored white, and lacunae are colored according to volume.