Two findings of gallstones in archaeological mummies from Colombia

Gallstones: The thing in itself

Content available: Audio Recording.

Identifying sialoliths through SEM technology

OBJECTIVE

To define SEM characteristics that may aid identification of sialoliths.

MATERIALS

Two sialoliths from modern patients affected by sialadenitis.

METHODS

Samples were coated with silver and subjected to scanning electron microscopy using an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy detector. Samples were then sectioned to permit study of the internal structure.

RESULTS

Sialoliths show an external smooth surface with no distinctive features. Internal structures consist of a distinctive aggregate of coarse granules of different sizes surrounded by a lamellar coat. Elemental composition consists of carbon, phosphate, calcium and oxygen, with traces of magnesium. The proportion of these elements differs between the core and the surface.

CONCLUSION

Although elemental composition is not specific, SEM analyses of sialoliths greatly differ from those of sesamoid bones, gallstones and nephroliths. Therefore, SEM analysis constitutes a useful tool for the precise identification of small calcified structures recovered during archaeological excavations.

SIGNIFICANCE

Precise identification of calcified structures may provide information about nutritional and/or pathological aspects of past individuals.

LIMITATIONS

Sialoliths are less common than other types of calcifications, and only two cases were analyzed in this study.

FUTURE PROSPECTS

SEM technology should be applied to identify the etiology of all minute calcified remains recovered during archaeological excavations of burial sites.

Combined computed tomography and position-resolved X-ray diffraction of an intact Roman-era Egyptian portrait mummy

Hawara Portrait Mummy 4, a Roman-era Egyptian portrait mummy, was studied with computed tomography (CT) and with CT-guided synchrotron X-ray diffraction mapping. These are the first X-ray diffraction results obtained non-invasively from objects within a mummy. The CT data showed human remains of a 5-year-old child, consistent with the female (but not the age) depicted on the portrait. Physical trauma was not evident in the skeleton. Diffraction at two different mummy-to-detector separations allowed volumetric mapping of features including wires and inclusions within the wrappings and the skull and femora. The largest uncertainty in origin determination was approximately 1.5 mm along the X-ray beam direction, and diffraction- and CT-determined positions matched. Diffraction showed that the wires were a modern dual-phase steel and showed that the 7 × 5 × 3 mm inclusion ventral of the abdomen was calcite. Tracing the 00.2 and 00.4 carbonated apatite (bone's crystalline phase) reflections back to their origins produced cross-sectional maps of the skull and of femora; these maps agreed with transverse CT slices within approximately 1 mm. Coupling CT and position-resolved X-ray diffraction, therefore, offers considerable promise for non-invasive studies of mummies.