Preservation of anthropogenic materials under different geochemical processes: A mineralogical approach

Minerals that are preserved or formed inside the sediment or soil can be used to determine whether primary anthropogenic constituents (bones, phytoliths, organic matter, charcoal, etc.) would have been affected by diagenesis. Stability diagrams of the minerals that describe the chemical system under investigation can be constructed and then tested in the field. In this approach, it is assumed that the stability of the archaeological material of interest is known. Except for bone, there are not many studies on the stability of other archaeological materials. This approach does not provide information on the former presence of an archaeological material in the sediment or soil but only whether these materials are stable in such an environment. Some indirect indication may be provided by unique mineral associations, but much more has to be done in this direction.