Background: The possibility of estimating the age of fossil bones using only classic thermogravimetry, on the basis of proper % mass loss ratio values, has been widely considered in the past years.

Objective: Our research has brought some innovations to the previous background, by using chemometric methods and by processing the numerical files of whole thermogravimetric curves. The objective of this paper is the selection, among the main thermal analysis methods available, i.e., thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermal dilatometry analysis (TDA), of the most suitable one, in order to evaluate the age of fossil bones.

Methods: Fossil bone samples from two ancient cemeteries in Sudan were analyzed using different thermal methods (TG, DTG, DTA, and TDA). Data of whole recorded thermal curves have been processed by PCA analysis.

Results: A systematic comparison of several thermal analytical techniques allowed to conclude that TG or DTG curves can provide more appropriate information to determine how old fossil bones of different ages are, as evidenced by PCA processing of the entire file set of TG or DTG curves.

Conclusion: It can be concluded that the chemometric processing of TG or DTG curves data files is the best method; however, discussing other thermal analytical curves (DTA and TDA) can complete the information found by means of chemometric processing of whole TG and DTG curves.

背景：在过去几年中，仅基于经典的热重分析法，就可以根据适当的质量损失百分比百分比值来估算化石骨骼的年龄。

目的：我们的研究通过使用化学计量学方法和处理整个热重曲线的数值文件，为以前的背景带来了一些创新。本文的目的是在可用的主要热分析方法中选择最合适的一种，即热重分析（TG），微分热分析（DTG），差热分析（​​DTA）和热膨胀分析（TDA），为了评估化石骨骼的年龄。

方法：使用不同的热分析方法（TG，DTG，DTA和TDA）分析了苏丹两个古代墓地的化石骨样本。整个记录的热曲线的数据已通过PCA分析进行了处理。

结果：几种热分析技术的系统比较可以得出结论，TG或DTG曲线可以提供更合适的信息来确定不同年龄的化石骨骼，如PCA处理TG或DTG曲线的整个文件集所证明的。

结论：可以得出结论，TG或DTG曲线数据文件的化学计量处理是最好的方法。但是，讨论其他热分析曲线（DTA和TDA）可以完善对整个TG和DTG曲线进行化学计量处理所获得的信息。