Mercury in human bones and burial context: an osteoarchaeological approach

• Autores: Noemi Álvarez Fernández
• Directores de la Tesis: Olalla López Costas (dir. tes.), Antonio Martínez Cortizas (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ( España ) en 2023
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Richard Bindler (presid.), Juan Carlos Nóvoa Muñoz (secret.), Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
• Materias:
  • Ciencias de la vida
    • Antropología (física)
  • Ciencias de la tierra y del espacio
    • Geoquímica
    • Meteorología
      • Contaminación atmosférica
    • Ciencias del suelo
      • Química de suelos
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: MINERVA
• Resumen

  • The relationship between humans and mercury pollution is investigated from a paleo-pollution perspective. We study the mercury content variability in Roman and post-Roman individuals, the skeletal mercury variability, the role of bone components in bone mercury content, the burial soil mercury distribution and the processes behind it, the bone-soil mercury relationship, and the role of skeletons and burial soil in mercury cycle. We confirmed skeletons as suitable paleo-archives, bodies as sources of mercury to the soil, that ante-mortem exposure affects intra- and inter-skeletal mercury variability, that context and location affect mercury burial distribution, the ante- and post-mortem origin of skeletal mercury, the minor role of soil on bone mercury, and that skeletons and burial soils play a role in mercury cycle.