I'm going with "more study is needed". I'll say that if arsenic is present in above normal concentrations in soil samples and you have blue-green crystals, proceed with caution. If arsenic is not present in anything greater than normal background levels, blue-green crystals may be vivianite. Either way, I suspect blue-green crystals should be handled with care, treated as potentially toxic until proven otherwise, and tested to determine composition - and I would encourage publication of the results of any such testing to provide folks in the field a little more secure footing when they encounter these things in the wild.
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jeremy Pye
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2019 11:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations
All,
So, I heard back from Dana about the question of arsenic forming blue-green crystals. She said that she was always trained that arsenic forms blue crystalline material in burials. Apparently, this was also by word of mouth and there was no study of the phenomenon. She now believes that the blue crystals in burials is likely vivianite as has been suggested earlier in this thread.
Best,
Jeremy
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 4/25/19, Richard Wright <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Subject: Re: Health and safety considerations for exhumations
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, April 25, 2019, 5:40 PM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Pye"
To:, "Richard Wright"
Cc:
Sent:Thu, 18 Apr 2019
22:04:55 +0000 (UTC)
Subject:Re: Health and
safety considerations for exhumations
All,
I have
attached a copy of the Borstel and Niquette paper, which was cited in a previous email. The blue-green crystals are mentioned in this paper, but the only source provided is personal communication attributed to Dana Kollman, a forensic anthropologist currently at Towson University. I have sent an email to Dana to ask if she has specific sources that discuss this phenomenon. I will report back if I hear anything.
Other than the
Meyers et al. 1998 paper, for which a link was given previously, I do know of two other publications that discuss health concerns in historic cemeteries, including arsenic. These include Konefes and McGee (2001) and Bybee (2004), both of which are attached.
Bybee does show a
picture of the blue-green crystals in a grave in Kentucky, but the reference given for the blue-green crystals is Borstel and Niquette.
Best,
Jeremy
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 4/16/19, Richard Wright wrote:
Subject: Re: Health and
safety considerations for exhumations
To:
[log in to unmask]
Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 5:30 PM
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
Academia
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.academia.edu_10146132_Arsenic-5Fand-5FOld-5FGraves-5FTesting-5FProcedures-5Fat-5FNineteenth-2DCentury-5FCemeteries&d=DwIFaQ&c=jvUANN7rYqzaQJvTqI-69lgi41yDEZ3CXTgIEaHlx7c&r=-8pj4cEgioZn2bzjziNMBdJ1XqJq6a4P68eVLG-usDQ&m=Q-7H5UbMtZKjDjcKpW0JyVjiHdjiJd4jmLrVK_lhFN8&s=tn-UhEtugALw2mk5f8aqCltZIIrcZBB-Pp9sI7GNPNs&e=
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 Carolina
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.chicora.org_pdfs_RS73-2520-2D-2520Son-2520Cemetery-2520compressed.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=jvUANN7rYqzaQJvTqI-69lgi41yDEZ3CXTgIEaHlx7c&r=-8pj4cEgioZn2bzjziNMBdJ1XqJq6a4P68eVLG-usDQ&m=Q-7H5UbMtZKjDjcKpW0JyVjiHdjiJd4jmLrVK_lhFN8&s=TQkk3LdLkPGt3slnKUujrkjbX8Jr25tw6mY6CMcG-Qk&e=
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:[log in to unmask]]
On
Behalf Of Richard
Wright
Sent: Monday, April
15, 2019 5:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
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://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.academia.edu_6961746_The-5Fsignificance-5Fof-5Fvivianite-5Fin-5Farchaeological-5Fsettings&d=DwIFaQ&c=jvUANN7rYqzaQJvTqI-69lgi41yDEZ3CXTgIEaHlx7c&r=-8pj4cEgioZn2bzjziNMBdJ1XqJq6a4P68eVLG-usDQ&m=Q-7H5UbMtZKjDjcKpW0JyVjiHdjiJd4jmLrVK_lhFN8&s=w_MBVghq9m3YcdGcqEBM81zj4OS5kVoHCcx5XRVn3T8&e=
[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:[log in to unmask]]
On
Behalf Of Adrian Myers
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019
7:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
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*
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Links:
------
[1]
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.academia.edu_6961746_The-5Fsignificance-5Fof-5Fvivianite-5Fin-5Farchaeological-5Fsettings&d=DwIFaQ&c=jvUANN7rYqzaQJvTqI-69lgi41yDEZ3CXTgIEaHlx7c&r=-8pj4cEgioZn2bzjziNMBdJ1XqJq6a4P68eVLG-usDQ&m=Q-7H5UbMtZKjDjcKpW0JyVjiHdjiJd4jmLrVK_lhFN8&s=w_MBVghq9m3YcdGcqEBM81zj4OS5kVoHCcx5XRVn3T8&e=
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