In situ preservation of archaeological bone 343 Archaeometry 44, 3 (2002) 343–352. Printed in Great Britain IN SITU PRESERVATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL BONE: A HISTOLOGICAL STUDY WITHIN A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH M. M. E. JANS and H. KARS Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek, PO Box 1600, 3800BP, Amersfoort, The Netherlands C. M. NIELSEN-MARSH and C. I. SMITH Fossil Fuels and Environmental Geochemistry (Postgraduate Institute), NRG, Drummond Building, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK A. G. NORD National Heritage Board, Box 5405, S-114 84, Stockholm, Sweden P. ARTHUR Scuola di Specializzazione di Archeologia Classica e Medioevale, University of Lecce, Via Dalmazio Birago 64, 73100 Lecce, Italy and N. EARL LQM, Land Quality Management, SChEME, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK To make preservation in situ a serious option for the management of archaeological sites, research has to be done on the factors affecting conservation of different archaeological materials, including bone. A European project has been started which deals with bone degradation in a multidisciplinary way. The goals of the project are to develop techniques to describe the preservation of archaeological bone, to make a classification of soil environ- ments according to their preservation potential and to detect what factors in the environment of the bone affect its conservation. One technique used in this project to determine the state of preservation of archaeological bone is histology. The relevance of this technique for archaeological heritage management research is discussed. KEYWORDS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL BONE, DIAGENESIS, PRESERVATION IN SITU, ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT, HISTOLOGY INTRODUCTION The archaeological material present in the soil can be considered to form part of a soil archive. From this archive, data about the past can be retrieved. However, some differences exist between this soil archive and a regular (paper) archive. When archaeological material is excavated, it cannot be replaced, neither can material be regenerated. Moreover, excavation is a destructive process; all features such as postholes or ditches, as well as stratigraphy, will be © University of Oxford, 2002