The first study was whether significant differences were present between sea soil and woodland soil. For this pedological analysis (grain size, chemical and physical composition) was performed. Determination of the amount of organic matter in both soils showed that this was less than 0.2%. The water content of both soils at the start and the end of the experiment were also comparable, namely less than 0.14%. As expected, the only differences between sea soil and woodland soil were found in the content of calcium carbonate and in calcium oxide levels; both were 10 times higher in sea soil compared with woodland soil. Although it is known that both chemical compounds have hygroscopic potential and could therefore theoretically influence the moisture, we did not find this in our analysis (see above).
In addition, only small, but not significant, differences were found in the size of soil particles in the different soils. Namely, the sea sand showed minor reduction in grain size and a higher size variety compared to fresh woodland soil (average respectively 1.64 µ, SD 1.28 versus 1.79 µ SD 1.40).
The macroscopic aspects of the pig legs in the in vitrodecomposition model were then analysed. No significant differences were found between legs stored in sea sand and legs stored in woodland sand at all three time points (not shown). Nevertheless, there were alterations in time between the freshly isolated material and the tissue excavated after one and three months. Namely, an increase in tissue solubility was found with increasing excavation time. This difference, however, could not be quantified for further statistical analysis.
Subsequently, putative microscopic differences were studied. As expected, the microscopic differences between fresh and unburied material were drastic. In that, all structures were optimally observed in the fresh material, whereas almost complete lyses were found in the unburied material. Microscopically, a significant increase in decomposition score was found over time (p