Tess Van Den Brande

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage | KIK/IRPA · Department of Laboratories

The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, has acquired experience for pretreating samples with 60 years of involvement in ¹⁴ C dating, and the implementation of routine protocols. These procedures as applied to wood, seeds, charred materials, bones, ivory, textiles (silk, wool, cotton, lin...

En fonction de la température de combustion, les ossements ayant subi une chauffe présentent une variété de couleurs allant du jaune rougeâtre à brun, en passant par noir, gris et blanc. Les ossements de couleur blanche sont considérés comme incinérés, ils ne contiennent plus aucunes traces de matière organique et sont donc datés grâce à leur fract...

Radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dating of protein-containing material (collagen, hair/wool, silk, leather) contaminated with extraneous carbon (e.g. humic substances) might result in unreliable dates when pretreated with the conventional but inadequate protocols. In this study cross-flow nanofiltration was applied to pretreated, protein-containing material. Th...

In 2015 the supposed lead coffin of Blessed Idesbald (†1167. AD) was opened for examination. The content (one male skeleton, a piece of textile and plant fragments) as well as the carbonated lead of the coffin were dated. The results reveal that the skeleton and the coffin are from the second part of the 15th century, beginning of the 16th century...

Lime burials are a characteristic phenomenon of the protohistoric funerary tradition on the Balearic Islands. At Cova de Na Dent, six samples, representing the entire stratigraphy of the lime burial, were taken for analysis. The radiocarbon dates suggested that the lowest levels of the burial were Late Bronze Age. This is in contradiction with the...

Lime burials are a characteristic phenomenon of the protohistoric funerary tradition on the Balearic Islands. At Cova de Na Dent, a lime burial has been sampled for analysis. The lime burial was made up of lime and fragmented bones. Six layers were sampled and described in the laboratory according to their color, the consistency of the deposition,...

Lime burials are a characteristic phenomenon of the protohistoric funerary tradition on the Balearic Islands. At Cova de Na Dent, a lime burial has been sampled for analysis. The lime burial was made up of lime and fragmented bones. Six layers were sampled and described in the laboratory according to their color, the consistency of the deposition,...

An overview will be presented of stable isotope data (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) available from animal and human bones from Roman to post-Medieval Belgian sites. The data will be used to assess trends in the human diet and evaluate the possible impact of reservoir effects originating from the consumption of fish derived from marine or freshwater environmen...

Traditionally, the Balearic so-called ‘quicklime burials’ of the Iron Age have been considered to be inhumations in quicklime. The general appearance of the bones, however, resembles more closely that of cremated bones. Laboratory tests reveal that the observed features of the bones from these burials, including cracks, thumbnail fractures and warp...

Based on radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) results obtained in the last 5 yr, this paper discusses the absolute chronology of the formation of one of the largest sand dunes within NW Belgium, the Great Ridge of Maldegem-Stekene. Multiproxy analysis of 6 sedimentary sequences points to a complex formation history covering the e...

The Balearic quicklime burials of the Iron Age have been radiocarbon dated. Because the bones found are unsuitable for dating, lime was dated using the titration method, with results indicating that in some samples there is still fossil limestone carbonate present, while other samples suffered from recarbonation. Nevertheless, 14C dates on lime and...

BELGOPROCESS verwerkt nucleair afval. Als het brandbaar afval kwik bevat komt deze stof in de afvalwaterstroom van het bedrijf terecht. Omwille van de strenge normen voor kwik is het belangrijk om de concentraties ervan in het afvalwater nauwkeurig te kunnen vaststellen. Daarbij moet rekening gehouden worden met de neiging van kwik om zich af te ze...