[Rockhounds] The Mineralogy of Death

[Mike Flannigan]

Passing along info from an archeological list
I am on.  The Mineralogy of Death?

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Date:    Wed, 17 Apr 2019 13:52:06 +0000
From:    "Davis, Daniel B (KYTC)"<Daniel.Davis at KY.GOV>
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

Just curious - how commonly was arsenic used for embalming in Australia? I don't have a good feel for that internationally, just that it became popular in the US after the Civil War, and especially after Lincoln was stuffed with it and sent around the country on a train. It took around 50 years for people to figure out that arsenic was killing off embalmers, which is why its use was outlawed here in 1910. Formaldehyde as a replacement was only slightly better.

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Richard Wright
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2019 6:31 PM
To:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

Daniel
I agree absolutely that prior tests for arsenic should be carried out on cemetery soils. No question about that.
What I was worried about was that excavators might get the jitters if what they were observing were merely bluish crystals of vivianite, which are commonly found around bodies in soils that contains iron. An anecdote, unrelated to health and safety. In one forensic site, containing an unidentified murdered body, an excavator thought that the blue on a persons clothing showed that the person must have brushed up against crumbling, blue coloured distemper on a painted wall. Alas there was no such forensic clue. The blue was made up of a dusting of tiny crystals of vivianite.
Richard

----- Original Message -----
From: "HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY"
To:
Cc:
Sent:Tue, 16 Apr 2019 14:02:32 +0000
Subject:Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

  Richard,
  Well, the original citation was Borstel C.L. and Niquette C. Testing Procedure for Historic Cemeteries. Cultural Resource Analysts, inc.; Lexington, KY, USA: 2000 - which used to be relatively easy to find online, but now all I can seem to locate are articles that use it as a reference. It was taken from a paper that originally appeared in the publication of ACRA (American Cultural Resources Association) in Issue
6-5 from the year 2000, but that issue is not available in their archives, and that appears to have been taken from a paper presented at the Archaeological Society of Virginia's annual meeting on October 3, 1998. The paper is available on Academiahttps://www.academia.edu/10146132/Arsenic_and_Old_Graves_Testing_Procedures_at_Nineteenth-Century_Cemeteries
though it does not include a reference to arsenic presenting as blue green crystals in historic burials.

  The notation of arsenic presenting as vivid blue or blue-green crystals does appear on page 40 of this Chicora Foundation report on the excavation of a historic cemetery in South Carolinahttp://www.chicora.org/pdfs/RS73%20-%20Son%20Cemetery%20compressed.pdf
but the reference in the report is to the ACRA paper, and no specific examples are illustrated in the report.

  We have no specific examples of arsenic presenting as blue-green crystals from the historic period excavations conducted to date in Kentucky, but we have not encountered high concentrations of arsenic in any of the completed exhumations. In short, the reference appears to come from a single source and currently appears to lack any field verification that I can locate. If however, arsenic were present in such concentrations in a historic period burial that it did appear as a cluster of vivid crystals, we would be looking at a burial that constituted a haz-mat site, which would create a very different set of problems.

  I do not see a good means to differentiate vivianite from possible arsenic contamination in the field aside from testing the soils beforehand. I would guess that, if testing shows no contamination of soils by arsenic but blue-green crystals appear on skeletal remains, you may have vivianite. If you do have contamination of soils from arsenic and crystals appear, additional - and very careful - testing of the material should be undertaken to determine its composition.

  Fun stuff.

  Dan

  -----Original Message-----
  From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Richard Wright
  Sent: Monday, April 15, 2019 5:33 PM
  To:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM
  Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

  Daniel
  I did not know that arsenic forms blue green crystals, but then I have never worked in that sort of cultural environment for burials.
  However, I have worked on numerous human and animal sites where the mineral 'vivianite' (an iron phosphate) forms harmless bluish crystals on bones and clothing.
https://www.academia.edu/6961746/The_significance_of_vivianite_in_archaeological_settings
  [1]
  Vivianite is odd. You can expose parts of a burial and notice nothing on the surface of the bones. After you return to work from a coffee break you see bones that are covered with bluish crystals. The explanation is that vivianite is colorless when buried, but oxidizes on exposure to light

  Is there any literature on the blue green crystals of arsenic?
  Richard

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY"
  To:
  Cc:
  Sent:Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:35:11 +0000
  Subject:Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

  I recommend testing the soils around historic graves prior to any excavation to determine the presence of hazardous materials - especially lead, arsenic, creosote, and mercury. Take samples away from the interments to get an idea of background levels of these materials, and follow OSHA guidelines with respect to the levels of any of the materials that show up in your samples.

  In most conditions - regular cemetery, wooden coffin, tropical to subtropical environment - the risk of infectious or contagious disease still being viable is pretty much non-existent. In some cases with good preservation, say above the Arctic Circle, the possibility of encountering viable contagions would increase significantly. Here in Kentucky, however, arsenic is the thing that I worry about most. It was used as an embalming agent for around 50 years, from around 1860 to 1910, with up to 12 pounds of arsenic used per interment. It presents in burials as blue green crystals, but if you haven't prepared for it by the time you see it, you're hosed.

  Daniel B. Davis
  Administrative Branch Manager, Cultural Resources Section Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Division of Environmental Analysis
  200 Mero Street
  Frankfort, KY 40622
  (502) 564-7250 or (502) 782-5013
  KYTC Archaeology and KYTC Cultural Historic

  -----Original Message-----
  From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM] On Behalf Of Adrian Myers
  Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 7:28 PM
  To:HISTARCH at COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM
  Subject: Health and safety considerations for exhumations

  Hi all,

  Can anyone point me to any articles or research that explore the issues around possible health and safety risks associated with exhumation of historical graves, both in general (e.g.
  lead/chemical/hazmat exposure, depth of excavations), but also specifically in relation to the possibility that an interred individual died of a communicable disease (e.g. Spanish Influenza).
  i.e., are there risks of disease transmission from a historical burial, and is there any research to back this up?

  Since so far I have nothing on it, I will also accept your informed anecdotes and opinions!

  Thanks kindly

  *Adrian Myers, PhD*