Immaculate conceptions: Micro-CT analysis of diagenesis in Romano-British infant skeletons

In this study we investigate the efficacy of micro-CT in studying bone diagenesis by scanning three archaeological human femoral samples where levels of diagenesis are known and varied, before scanning a novel sample set of ten Romano-British young infant/perinatal femora to test the dichotomous appearance of bioerosion. We find that micro-CT is a viable non-destructive method of investigating bone bioerosion, but is less useful for characterising diagenetic staining and inclusions. Half of the infant samples studied here were free from bacterial bioerosion, further suggesting that histological analysis can be used to identify archaeological remains of stillborn and short-lived infants.