The authors present and discuss a method for simultaneous quantitative analysis of total loss on ignition (LOI) (CO2 + H2O) and CO2 content separate from the LOI, in an industrial environment of quicklime production. Total LOI is determined by the Compton scattered RhKα tube radiation which is used directly in the calibration equation. The resulting calibration curve for LOI, including matrix correction shows an accuracy of 0.15 mass%. The carbon content (CO2) is distinguished from total LOI by measuring CKα radiation, which is possible with the required accuracy by employing a new multilayer analyzer with greatly improved background characteristics. The method aims at high reliability and sample throughput and at becoming a less time-consuming alternative to the conventional method of LOI determination by weighing sequences before and after “ignition” at 1050 °C.

Disposal of the dead in early societies frequently involved multiple stages of ritual and processing. At Khonkho Wankane in the Andes quicklime was used to reduce corpses to bones in a special circular structure at the centre of the site. The quicklime was obtained from solid white blocks of calcium oxide and was then mixed with water and applied to disarticulated body parts. A few plaster-covered bones were recovered from the structure but most had been removed from the site, possibly by itinerant llama caravans. Thus, Khonkho Wankane was a ritual centre to which the dead were brought for processing and then removed for final burial elsewhere.