From engineered standards to natural bone: re-constraining topographical scanning for heritage samples.

Area of Science:

• Forensic Science
• Materials Science
• Archaeological Science

Background:

• Microscopic topographical scanning of bone is crucial in archaeology, medicine, and criminology.
• Accuracy assessments of scanning tools on bone specimens are lacking.
• Existing technologies may have limitations for bone material analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the performance of focus variation and 3D confocal scanning techniques on bone.
• To identify limitations in current bone scanning measurement practices and technologies.
• To compare the accuracy of different scanning methods for bone specimens.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of focus variation and 3D confocal scanning.
• Testing on a range of bone specimens and engineered materials.
• Evaluation of feature distortion, including cutmarks.

Main Results:

• Both techniques exhibit limitations on bone material, not observed on engineered materials.
• Cutmarks and similar features are particularly susceptible to distortion.
• 3D confocal scanning is preliminarily identified as more accurate for bone.

Conclusions:

• Current bone scanning technologies have previously unknown limitations.
• Discrepancies explain repeatability issues in bone analysis.
• Future equipment redesign is necessary for critical applications in bone analysis.