Isotope Analysis (Other Keyword)
1-25 (26 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Isotopic analysis has been used in archaeological and forensic contexts to examine diet, migration, trace evidence, and the origin of individuals. This project examines whether individuals were of a forensic or archaeological context using δ13C, δ15N, and δ34Sisotope values on behalf of the British Columbia Coroners Service. Carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur...
The application of strontium isotope analysis to historic cemetery contexts: a case study for the creation of robust individual identifications (2015)
Following the 1991-1992 excavation of the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Cemetery (1878-1925), up to 190 individuals were preliminarily identified using historical documentation, material culture, and geospatial analysis. Subsequent bioarchaeological analyses have provided an additional line of evidence for the identification of these individuals. The cemetery population of Western European immigrants and local/nonlocal native born Americans is composed of paupers, the institutionalized,...
Caribbean Anthropogenic Paleozoogeography: Cultural and Ecological Significance of Animal Introductions in the Lesser Antilles (2016)
Studies of exotic animal introductions in the insular Caribbean have focused on the paleozoogeography, origin, and dispersal patterns of these taxa, but have yet to resolve a number of important, related issues. Among these are the critical problems of distinguishing live introductions from the import of animal parts and assessing the degree of animal management practiced by Amerindians. These questions are fundamental to understanding the broader cultural and ecological significance of faunal...
Changing Foodways in Pre-Columbian Illinois (2015)
Pre-Columbian Native Americans of Illinois have had a long history of plant production from foraging to cultivation via horticulture to domestication via agriculture. Isotopic analysis has been used as a standard for comparing diet from different sites and isotopic ratios are given as parts-per-mil (‰), and reflect the consumption of types of food. Carbon isotopes (δ13C) can indicate the types of plants eaten and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) indicate the trophic level of protein sources in the diet....
A climatic imperative? Testing the connection between climate and crop adoption in the Indus and the Hexi corridor (2015)
Why might societies adopt new crops or change their cropping patterns? Climate change is one of several possible drivers, but its role in crop exchange has rarely been empirically tested and its importance relative to other factors, particularly cultural factors, remains controversial. As part of the Food Globalisation in Prehistory project, two isotopic studies have aimed to directly test the relationship between climate change and crop movement in particular contexts. One focuses on the Hexi...
Culture Change at Casas Grandes: New Perspectives from Bioarchaeological Analyses (2017)
One of the significant ongoing debates surrounding Casas Grandes is whether the Medio period florescence of Paquimé arose from in situ developments or external stimuli. Some scholars have attributed Medio period cultural developments to the arrival of immigrants from surrounding regions, including Mesoamerica, west Mexico, and the American Southwest, while others have suggested that Paquimé grew out of the preceding Viejo period. To address this question, we use strontium and oxygen isotope...
Documenting the Forced Migration of Enslaved Peoples at the Grassmere Plantation, Nashville, Tennessee Using Strontium and Lead Isotope Analyses (2017)
The Grassmere Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee was established in 1810, and documents show that unnamed, enslaved peoples labored there throughout the decades until emancipation. Our research investigates whether enslaved laborers were born and raised on the plantation or were forcibly moved there later in their lives. To address that question, we analyzed strontium and lead isotope ratios from tooth enamel. Twenty burials were recovered from Grassmere, and we obtained strontium and lead...
EA-IRMS and the isotope ecology from faunal remains at the Slocan Narrows site, Upper Columbia River area, interior Pacific Northwest (2017)
Isotope ecological signatures can add to the overall understanding of terrestrial and aquatic species’ diets that are present at an archaeological site. In this paper we analyze fauna specimens from across the breadth of species found at the Slocan Narrows site, an aboriginal pithouse village occupied from 3,100 cal BP to the late 18th century in the Upper Columbia River area of the interior Pacific Northwest. We utilize EA-IRMS to measure δN, δC, and δO isotope ratios to obtain an...
Establishing Cultural Affiliation under NAGPRA Using Geographic Origin: A Case Study of Minnesota (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Indigenous perspectives of cultural affiliation center on shared relationships with the land (Bruchac 2005); thus, establishing cultural affiliation under NAGPRA is more meaningful if it can reassociate an ancestor based on their region of origin. Biological relatedness has been used to establish cultural affiliation, but this approach prioritizes a...
EVALUATING MOBILITY, MONUMENTALITY, AND FEASTING AT THE SAPELO ISLAND SHELL RING COMPLEX (2008)
Two of the most salient anthropological questions regarding Southeastern shell ring sites are related to the season(s) that they were occupied and whether or not the deposits represent monumental constructions and/or feasting remains. This paper addresses these questions through the analysis growth band of clams (Mercenaria spp.) and stable oxygen isotope ratios of clam and oyster shells (Crassostrea virginica) at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex located on the Georgia coast, USA. The...
Examining Large Game Animal Trade at Two Fremont Sites in Utah (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Strontium isotope analysis has been used by archaeologists to track prehistoric human and animal migrations. Strontium isotope analysis can suggest which large game individuals were obtained locally by prehistoric hunters and which were brought to habitation sites through long-distance hunting or trade. This study explores the potential of using strontium...
Fodder and Water: Isotope Analysis of Livestock Enamel in Southwest Spanish Colonial Settlements in the Pimeria Alta (2016)
The introduction of livestock to the Pimeria Alta in the 18th-century dramatically shifted resource use in the Sonoran Desert and the Santa Cruz River Valley. Colonial and indigenous politics and economics were transformed as a result of the presence and uses of these animals, but it is relatively unknown how O’odham people in the Santa Cruz Valley balanced the grazing and watering needs of livestock with the needs of farming and seasonal wild food gathering in the arid region. Using carbon and...
A Life’s Story from a Single Tooth? : a discussion of the value of destructive analyses (2017)
Countless studies have demonstrated that isotopic and ancient DNA analyses of human skeletal remains can provide a valuable added layer of information to the study of past populations and their lifeways. Although improvements in sampling methods and technological advances have greatly reduced the amount of bone or enamel required, these analyses still require the destruction of human remains. Many Native American communities are opposed and do not allow sampling of their ancestors’ remains for...
Livestock Economy and the Emergence of Urbanism in Central Italy during the Iron Age and Archaic Period (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses subsistence specialization, livestock mobility, and husbandry strategies at Gabii during the eighth–fifth centuries BCE, a time of transition to state-level, urbanized political systems. The site of Gabii is one of several emerging cities in the Lower Tiber Valley that grew along a similar trajectory, expanding from dispersed hut...
Patterns of Migration at Paquimé: Insights from Isotopic and Demographic Data (2019)
This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Interregional interaction has factored prominently in debates about the origin and cultural trajectory of Paquimé since the site was first excavated six decades ago. In this paper, we use a bioarchaeological approach to reconstruct the structure and scale of migration at Paquimé to better...
Pigs and Power Centres in Late Neolithic Britain (2015)
This paper explores the interplay between food provision, landscape and power centres in late Neolithic Britain. This period is characterised by iconic megalithic ceremonial complexes, the most famous of which is Stonehenge. These centres represent a new scale of labour mobilisation, not previously seen in Britain. Evidence for feasting, invariably focussing on pork, is rife is in the environs of these monuments, yet settlement evidence is generally sparse. It is likely that these feasting...
A Pilot Study in The Application of HPLC-DAD-MS and IRMS In the Analysis of Textile Fibres from the National Gallery of Australia and Archaeological Site Caleta Vitor, Northern Chile (2016)
This pilot study details the application and results of three dye extraction methods, High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection (HPLC-DAD), Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) and Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) on camelid fibres extracted from archaeological textiles from Chile and Peru. Dye analysis comprised correlating compounds identified by LCMS to data recorded on HPLC-DAD and finding known natural dye components which matched our results....
Prehistoric Long - Distance Interaction in Oceania: An Interdisciplinary Approach (1997)
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A Preliminary Multi-isotope Assessment of Precolumbian Humans from Panama (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study presents data on the first multi-isotope analysis of precolombian humans in Panama. We use carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), oxygen (δ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopes to determine the diets and mobility patterns of individuals from seven archaeological sites: Cerro Mangote, Sitio Sierra, and Cerro Juan Díaz in...
Ritual or dietary use? Wild and domestic turkeys at Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581) (2015)
Recent work on turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the prehispanic Southwest (e.g., Speller et al. 2010, McCaffery et al. 2014) has highlighted both the long history of domestic turkey use in the Southwest and the concurrent exploitation of the local wild Merriam’s turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami). This new information has added to the ongoing debate over whether turkeys were domesticated for ritual or for dietary purposes. At Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581), turkeys eating a maize-heavy diet...
Sapelo Island
Sapelo Island Project
Social inequality as reflected in dietary and mobility practices of South American maritime chiefdom societies: Contextual and isotopic analysis of burials excavated in La Tolita, Ecuador (2017)
This project explores social inequality in relation to dietary and mobility practices of maritime Pacific polities in La Tolita (600 BC-200 AD) of Ecuador and Colombia. The research question driving this project aims to identify: How is social inequality reflected in the diet and spatial mobility as practiced by maritime chiefdom societies through time and space? A cross-site comparison between the dietary and mobility practices of individuals buried in mounds associated with the chiefly class...
Tethered, Ad Hoc, Resilient, or Structured? An Isotopic Investigation of Pastoral Strategies in Montane Ecosystems of Central Asia (2016)
This paper focuses on tracking the mobility and diets of domesticated animals using isotopic analysis. We present two archaeological contexts from mountain regions of Central Asia: 1) A 9th-10th century (medieval) iron smelting town located at 2000 masl in the Zaamin Mtns. of Uzbekistan and 2) a series of Bronze Age (2500-1200 BCE) pastoral settlements located between 900 and 1500 masl in the Dzhungar Mtns. of eastern Kazakhstan. We are curious about pastoral productivity as it relates to social...
Theoretically informed isotope analysis: human-animal relationships at Fishbourne Roman Palace (2017)
Stable isotope studies have become common-place in archaeological investigations of human diet and mobility, often underpinned by small comparative studies of associated animal remains which are generally utilised as baseline data. However, the value of moving beyond such anthropocentric studies and of analysing animals in their own right is becoming increasingly recognised. Detailed research on animal diet and mobility is enhancing our understanding of animal management and patterns of...
Understanding the Neolithic Transition: Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis of Subneolithic and Neolithic Animals and Inhabitants of the SE Baltic Coast (3200-2500 cal BC) (2016)
The Neolithic transition in the boreal zone of the Baltic region deviated significantly from the “classic” European model, and in 2014-2015 a multidisciplinary research project targeting why this occurred was undertaken. Twenty-one 14C AMS dates were obtained for 11 Late Mesolithic– Early Bronze Age (7000-1000 cal B.C.) graves and for 6 human bones found in settlements or refuse layers. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes analyses of bone collagen were conducted for 40 human bones and teeth from...