Isotopic Analysis (Other Keyword)
1-25 (29 Records)
Las Capas, AZ AA:12:111 (ASM), so named for its deeply stratified deposits, dates primarily to the San Pedro phase of the Early Agricultural period, circa 1200-800 B.C. Later, more sporadic occupation of the site extends from the Cienega phase (800 B.C.-A.D. 50) through the Hohokam sequence and the Protohistoric period. Occupation prior to approximately 2100 B.C. is suggested by several radiocarbon dates on maize found redeposited in younger contexts. Recent excavations at the site and its...
Assessing the Origin of Wares from Sardis through Sr-Pb Isotopic Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Geological and Technological Contributions to the Interpretation of Radiogenic Isotope Data" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of isotopic analysis of ceramic sherds and locally sourced soils that contribute to our understanding of the origin of ancient Sardis’s ceramic corpus and help clarify the site’s role within the larger interaction network of western Anatolia. A previous study...
Boron Isotopes: A New Tool for Characterizing Wetland Use In The Past (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnographic and historical evidence shows that wetlands are highly variable environments, and humans exploit them in both spatially- and seasonally-specific ways. Reconstructing such patterned use with currently-available archaeological methods is extraordinarily difficult or, in most cases, impossible. We have identified a promising new tool for precise...
Can I See the Menu, Please? Isotopic Baselines and Human Diet in the Andes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of plants reflect the environmental conditions under which they grew. Isotopic variation caused by environmental variation is often passed on to consumers, including humans, such that each region and time period has its own isotopic signature and variability. Isotopic paleodietary analysis in the central Andes often...
Children of Casas Grandes: A Molecular Examination of Subadults at Convento and Paquimé (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeological research has played a significant role in understanding the Casas Grandes region of Northwest Mexico. Excavations at the archaeological sites of Convento and Paquimé recovered at least 652 burials dating to AD 700–1450, providing a robust skeletal population for investigations, including research on population demographics, patterns of...
Combining Strontium and Sulphur Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Paleolithic Reindeer Mobility (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Research into the Late Pleistocene of Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding the movement patterns of past animals is key to unravelling Paleolithic hunter-gatherer mobility and landscape use. Strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) has long been used as a proxy for provenance studies based on the high correlation between strontium values in faunal tissues and underlying lithology....
Degrees of Change: The Transition from Paleoindian to Archaic (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cabinets of Curiosities: Collections and Conservation in Archaeological Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition between the Paleoindian (13,000–8000) and Archaic (8000–1000) periods continues to elude North American archaeologists. It is inferred from archaeological evidence that human populations were nomadic hunter-gatherers during both periods. The creation of storage pits, however, provides...
Does Exposure to Heat Alter Stable Isotope Values of Ostrich Eggshell? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological sites in Africa and Asia often contain large amounts of eggshell fragments from ostriches (Struthio spp.), indicating that these birds and their eggs were a valuable source of protein and calories for hunter-gatherers. Despite their abundance, however, ostrich eggshell (OES) remains understudied. Stable isotopic values preserved in...
Early Hominin Paleoecology (2013)
An introduction to the multidisciplinary field of hominin paleoecology for advanced undergraduate students and beginning graduate students, Early Hominin Paleoecology offers an up-to-date review of the relevant literature, exploring new research and synthesizing old and new ideas. Recent advances in the field and the laboratory are not only improving our understanding of human evolution but are also transforming it. Given the increasing specialization of the individual fields of study in...
Embodied Identities and Moving Bodies: The Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Ninth-Century Cultural Contacts from the Perspective of K’anwitznal (Ucanal), Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fifty years ago, Maya scholars argued that peoples from the Gulf Coast invaded and settled several sites in the Southern Maya Lowlands in the ninth century, including the site of Ucanal. These invasions were thought to have led to the collapse of Southern...
Entering the "Valley of Death": Isotopic Evidence of Vulnerable Survivors at Roman Period Kellis, Egypt (2018)
Breast-fed infants living in communities with adequate food access experience particularly high health risks during complementary feeding between ages 6 to 36 months. The most vulnerable of these die in this period, characterized as the "valley of death," which represents a biocultural reality. The majority of those who survive are "vulnerable survivors." The Kellis 2 cemetery sample (Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, AD 50-450) provides a unique opportunity to analyze effects of biocultural disruptions...
Evaluating Mobility, Monumentality, and Feasting at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring Complex (2011)
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 of growth band of clams (Mercenaria spp.) (N = 620) and stable oxygen isotope ratios of clam and oyster shells (Crassostrea virginica) (N = 58) at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex located on the Georgia...
"A feast of meat, a day of sociability": Examining Patterns in Turkey Management in the Cibola Region, AD 1150-1400 (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent genetic and isotopic studies highlight important variations in the nature, timing, and intensity of domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) management practices across the northern U.S. Southwest. While a degree of intensification in turkey production has been associated with widespread settlement aggregation in the...
Geographical origin assignment of sheep wool textiles using light stable isotopes (2015)
Identifying which of a group of material cultural objects is non-local has long been part of artefact analysis in archaeology. Identifying the movement of objects, and the movement of ideas about how to make and use objects, is important to understanding physical and ideological links between sites. This work has relied on data from typological, technological and chemical analyses of object construction and use. Textiles made from sheep wool were a highly valuable commodity which was traded...
Invisible Women in a World of Men: The Textile Trade in the North Atlantic, AD 1000–1600 (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeology in the North and North Atlantic (SANNA 3.0): Investigating the Social Lives of Northern Things" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Waterlogged or deeply buried deposits from medieval harbors in certain northern European towns have produced large and well-preserved textile assemblages that contain a surprising number of non-indigenous textiles. Some of these appear to have originated in the North...
Isotopic Analyses of Diet in Late Prehistoric Southwestern Transylvania (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southwestern Transylvania houses a rich prehistoric archaeological record, as well as abundant natural resources, including salt, tin, and some of the richest copper and gold deposits in Europe. The Mureș River, which connected prehistoric communities in Eastern and Central Europe, also flows through the region. Despite its status as an economic and...
Isotopic Investigations into Dietary Patterns of Early Medieval Communities in Thuringia, Germany (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Early Medieval period in Central Europe was a time of pronounced socioeconomic differences, as well as sociopolitical unrest. While the former Roman infrastructure was deteriorating, the costs of importing foods and other material goods into Thuringia increased, exacerbating differences in food availability between the various sectors of...
Mogollon Strontium Isotopic Baseline (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent studies on domestic turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) and exotic scarlet macaws (Ara macao cyanoptera) have raised new questions about how prehistoric communities in the American Southwest maintained local avian management practices, developed breeding regimes, and fostered trade networks. While strontium isotopic analysis (87Sr/86Sr) can be used to...
New Insights into Poverty Point Exchange through Lead Isotopic Analysis of Galena (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE Not Your Father’s Poverty Point: Rewriting Old Narratives through New Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The mineral galena is well established as a raw material used by prehistoric peoples of eastern North America from the Late Archaic through Mississippian periods. In the lower Mississippi River Valley, numerous specimens have been recovered at sites occupied by groups associated with the Poverty Point...
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Two Paleoindian Sites in North-Central New Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mapping environmental change through time can help archaeologists better understand patterns of human resource use. This poster presents the δ13C and δ18O values for bison teeth at two Paleoindian sites (Boca Negra Wash and Water Canyon) in north-central New Mexico. The δ13C and δ18O values are compared across the two sites to evaluate if there is a change...
Persistence in Turkey Husbandry Practices in the Southwest and Four Corners Region: The Isotopic and Ethnohistorical Evidence (2018)
Research has demonstrated an independent domestication event of Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) occurred in the Southwestern USA between 200 BC—AD 500, which was separate from the domestication of turkey within the Mesoamerican world. While aDNA analyses revealed this as a separate and distinct event, we still know little about how turkey husbandry was practiced in the prehistoric Southwest, USA, Northwest, Mexico, and Four Corners regions. Our research applies carbon and nitrogen isotopes to a...
Persistence in Turkey Husbandry Practices in the Southwest and Four Corners Region: The isotopic and ethnohistorical evidence (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. aDNA analysis reveals an independent domestication event of Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) occurred in the Southwestern United States between 200 BC—AD 500. While this event was distinct from the domestication of turkey within the Mesoamerican world approximately 2000 years...
Population Movements, Trading, and Identity along the East Coast of Postclassic Yucatan. Dental morphology, isotopic provenience analyses and body modifications in human series from El Meco, El Rey, and Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico (2015)
Different hypotheses exist for explaining population development and replacement on the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula after the so-called Maya collapse, one involving the presence of the Putun-Chontal folk fringing the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Here we examine these proposals through the lenses of conventional paleodemography, dental morphology, body modifications (dental decorations and head shaping) of human skeletal series from the Postclassic coastal trader settlements of El Meco, El Rey...
The Salmon of Knowledge: Determining the influence of marine-derived isotopes on the diets of medieval and early modern Irish populations (2015)
Many medieval and early modern villages and abbeys in County Galway, Ireland are situated directly on the coast. This study seeks to understand the pathways that marine resources follow as they enter diets of religious and lay Irish populations by using isotopic, ethnographic, and historical evidence. The isotopic portion of this study elucidates how marine-derived isotopes cycle through the coastal Irish landscape and are included in the diet. Ecological sampling on the Atlantic island,...
Stable Isotope Analysis of the Diet of Romans and Langobards in the Veneto from Late Antiquity to the Medieval Period (2018)
Limited isotopic research has been conducted in the Veneto, Italy during the transitional period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and arrival of the Germanic Langobards in the sixth century AD. Questions remain of the local implications of diet during this period of instability, when invasions and population decline occurred. Thus, this research compares Roman and Langobard populations from late antiquity to the medieval period using stable isotope analysis on bone collagen, apatite,...