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@ARTICLE{vonderLhe:878694,
author = {von der Lühe, Barbara and Prost, Katharina and Birk, Jago
Jonathan and Fiedler, Sabine},
title = {{S}teroids aid in human decomposition fluid identification
in soils of temporary mass graves from {W}orld {W}ar {II}},
journal = {Journal of archaeological science reports},
volume = {32},
issn = {2352-409X},
address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]},
publisher = {Elsevier},
reportid = {FZJ-2020-03012},
pages = {102431 -},
year = {2020},
abstract = {Steroids are widely used for the detection of faecal matter
and also – in recent years – for characterising human
decomposition in the terrestrial environment. Until now it
was not clear whether all commonly used faecal (i.e.
5β-stanols, 5β-stanones and bile acids) and tissue derived
steroids (i.e. cholesterol, 5α-cholestanol and
5α-cholestanone) could reveal the presence of human
decomposition products in temporary graves. In this study,
soil was sampled from three putative mass graves where
concentration camp prisoners were temporarily buried for 10
months at the end of World War II (1944 – 45). We
hypothesised that soil from the putative temporarymass
graves exhibits elevated concentrations of faecal and tissue
steroids compared to reference samples, thereby reflecting
the former input of human decomposition products. Steroids
(Δ5-sterols, 5β-stanols, 5α-stanols, stanones and bile
acids) from soil samples from three soil pits suspected to
be putative mass graves, as wellas reference soil samples,
were extracted and analysed with gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC–MS). Cholesterol, 5α-cholestanol and
5α-cholestanone were ubiquitously present in all soil pits
and reference samples and therefore not indicative for the
former input of human decomposition products. Compared to
the reference,increased concentrations of selected faecal
steroids (coprostanol, 5β-stigmastanol, 5β-cholestanone,
lithocholic acid, isolithocholic acid) provided a strong
indication of the former input of human decomposition
products for one soil pit (pit 2). Additionally,
epicoprostanol and isolithocholic acid were unique
components for soil pit 2 asthey were found neither in the
other pits nor in the reference soil. In combination with
earlier findings, steroid and bile acid patterns indicate an
input of faecal and tissue constituents from former buried
bodies in at least one of the three soil pits.},
cin = {IBG-3},
ddc = {930},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-3-20101118},
pnm = {255 - Terrestrial Systems: From Observation to Prediction
(POF3-255)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF3-255},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
UT = {WOS:000553813500011},
doi = {10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102431},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/878694},
}