Cremation practices and the survival of ancient DNA: burnt bone analyses via RAPD-mediated PCR

Numerous burial rites have been developed in different time periods of human cultural evolution. One of the most interesting burial practices was the ritual cremation of human bodies. Due to the respective cultural and religious background, brand graves are known where human remains had been buried together with burnt bones of animal origin. To date, burnt bone samples have been refractory to PCR-mediated amplification. D/L values of aspartic acid far greater than 80 x 10(-3) were measured in the samples thus indicating the presence of severely nicked and fragmented nucleic acids. In order to differentiate between burial gift of animal origin and burnt human specimens we established a highly sensitive protocol that addresses all the shortcomings connected to degraded ancient DNA. With the novel procedure it was possible to classify 4 specimens ranging from 2,000-5,000 BP on the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequences.