Ionoluminescence investigations of ancient human bone with an external ionbeam

In this paper we briefly describe the present experimental set-up used for ionoluminescence (IL) measurements. As one of the first applications of the IL method we studied the IL of femoral cross-sections of ancient human bon es in order to get more information about diagenetic alteration of bone min eral. With increasing distance from the periosteal edge of the bone, a chan ge of the luminescence from orange to blue was found. The TL spectra consis t of two broad bands centred at lambda = 440 and lambda = 590 nm, respectiv ely. The intensity of the latter one corresponds well with the Mn content o btained by mu PIXE measurements. Therefore, the luminescence band at 590 nm most likely results from luminescence activation by Mn2+ ions incorporated into the bone mineral, possibly due to the ion exchange process Ca2+ <-> M n2+ which occurred during the time that the bone was buried in the soil. (C ) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.