Fish Heads, Fish Heads Revisited
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC Ballroom A
Start Date
17-5-2012
End Date
17-5-2012
Abstract
Our experiment is based on an experiment previously performed by Dr. Lubinski shown in the article “Fish Heads, Fish Heads: An Experiment on Differential Bone Preservation” published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The purpose of our experiment was to see effects of acidic, alkaline, and H2O solutions on the vertebra and select cranial bones of three tilapia specimens over a 12 day period as well as which sections of bones were preserved the best under the circumstances. It is important to understand the effects that different laboratory conditions have on skeletal remains being studied for the benefits of zooarchaeology and other natural sciences. The methods that we performed differently from Dr. Lubinski’s experiment were based on time constraints and the chemical solutions used, as well as adding a control group (H2O), the latter of which the original experiment did not have. Our theory was that the bones would show the most extreme changes in the acidic solution, the alkaline would produce less of a change than acid and the bones submerged in H2O would show the least change. We used a .05 mol of sodium citrate tribasic dihydrate with 98% titration as the basis of both the acidic and basic solutions to submerge our specimens. Our results showed that the vertebra had the highest percent of change, especially in the acidic solution, the opposite of what occurred in the original experiment.
Recommended Citation
McBride, Rhianna and Mosher, Malinda, "Fish Heads, Fish Heads Revisited" (2012). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 88.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2012/posters/88
Poster Number
37
Additional Mentoring Department
Anthropology
Fish Heads, Fish Heads Revisited
SURC Ballroom A
Our experiment is based on an experiment previously performed by Dr. Lubinski shown in the article “Fish Heads, Fish Heads: An Experiment on Differential Bone Preservation” published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The purpose of our experiment was to see effects of acidic, alkaline, and H2O solutions on the vertebra and select cranial bones of three tilapia specimens over a 12 day period as well as which sections of bones were preserved the best under the circumstances. It is important to understand the effects that different laboratory conditions have on skeletal remains being studied for the benefits of zooarchaeology and other natural sciences. The methods that we performed differently from Dr. Lubinski’s experiment were based on time constraints and the chemical solutions used, as well as adding a control group (H2O), the latter of which the original experiment did not have. Our theory was that the bones would show the most extreme changes in the acidic solution, the alkaline would produce less of a change than acid and the bones submerged in H2O would show the least change. We used a .05 mol of sodium citrate tribasic dihydrate with 98% titration as the basis of both the acidic and basic solutions to submerge our specimens. Our results showed that the vertebra had the highest percent of change, especially in the acidic solution, the opposite of what occurred in the original experiment.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Patrick Lubinski