engleski

MR Ultrashort Echo Time sequence use on ancient urns containing cremated remains

Purpose/Introduction: Paleoradiology plays an important role in archeology since its first implementation soon after discovery of x- rays. Computed tomography (CT) as a paleoradiological tool in study of ancient cremation urns is described only in two articles. Clinical magnetic resonance (MR) has never been used in studying of ancient cremation remains. Subjects and Methods: Three urns belonging to the Late Bronze Age period have scanned with MDCT unit (Sensation 16 ; Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) and on a 1.5-T scanner (Magnetom Avanto, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) using Ultra short echo time (UTE) sequence. Results: CT scans allowed a clear visualization and measurement of the urns and its content. Although the urn contained ancient bone dehydrated by the process of cremation, UTE sequence produced high contrast images, which clearly evidenced the presence of some bone material in the lower third of the object. Discussion/Conclusion: CT offers a completely new approach to the analysis of cremation urns, allowing a detailed virtual documentation and facilitating excavation of these micro- sights. However, computed tomography presents certain limitations that can alter the analysis of the urn content ; its contrast resolution can be fairly inadequate when it comes to differentiating material of similar densities. MR has proven to be a good method to detect and differentiate bone material from the surrounding urn content. While in mummy studies CT remains imaging modality of choice and MR should be used as an adjunct method in specific cases in the analysis of cremation urns it could become a part of standard protocol.

CT ; MR ; paleopatologija ; stara povijest ; paleoradiologija

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