Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Isotope analysis has long developed into an established method in the bioarchaeologist’s toolkit, particularly for exploring mobility and paleodiet. Methodological advancements are progressing at an extreme rate, providing ever wider applications and greater interpretative potential. There is increased recognition that isotope analysis is better suited to exclude rather than place definite interpretations. Crucially, studies are now integrating isotope data with multifactorial archaeological, environmental, and osteological evidence at varying scales, a feature that was frequently absent from early studies. This session aims to take stock of the state of the field and its relationship with other subdisciplines by focusing on case studies that take an integrative approach. Starting with an inclusive definition of integration, it will showcase good practice in integrating wider scientific data or archaeological evidence to disentangle issues of equifinality. We invite studies that combine novel data sources and those that use multiple isotope/biomolecular proxies in combination. We would also welcome discursive submissions that reflect on the development of integrative approaches and consider future directions. Papers that highlight failures and offer lessons learned are especially welcome.

Other Keywords
Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Iron Age • Zooarchaeology • Mobility • Subsistence and Foodways • Migration • Isotope Analysis • Neolithic • Mortuary archaeology • Isotopes

Geographic Keywords
Principality of Monaco (Country) • Kingdom of Spain (Country) • Principality of Andorra (Country) • Portuguese Republic (Country) • Gibraltar (Country) • Isle of Man (Country) • French Republic (Country) • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort (Country) • Ireland (Country) • Kingdom of Belgium (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)

  • Documents (14)
Documents
  • The Calamitous Fourteenth Century and Its Influence on the People: A Case Study from Ypres, Belgium (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Spros. Bart Lambert. Barbara Veselka. Philippe Claeys. Christophe Snoeck.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the fourteenth century in Europe, challenges like climate change, crop failures, and the plague affected the people significantly. Such events bore great consequences for people’s health and their everyday lives forcing them to adapt. The inhabitants of Ypres, present-day Belgium, were no exception. During the...

  • Combining Proteomic Sex Determination of Archaeological Remains with Isotopic Analyses for Understanding the Development of Animal Husbandry (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Buckley. Manasij Pal Chowdhury. Fabienne Pigiere. Jessica Smyth. Cheryl Makarewicz.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Proteomic techniques are being increasingly used in bioarchaeological applications to improve understanding of the human past. However, few studies have focused on the study of tooth enamel for sexing in archaeofaunal remains despite initial studies over a decade ago looking at human teeth. Here we use of...

  • Complementing and Complicating: Integrating Isotopic and Phenotypic Evidence at the Early Medieval Cemetery of Five Mile Lane (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ciara O'Brien Butler. Katie Faillace. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Isotopic and phenotypic methods are frequently employed in studies of migration and population affinity in the past; however, they are rarely integrated due to differences in scales. This paper presents a case study for the complementary use of multi-isotope (87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, δ34S, δ13C, and δ15N) analysis and...

  • The Development and Application of Isoscapes for Archaeological Provenance Studies in the Neotropics: Recent Developments and Future Directions (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason Laffoon.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Isotope studies have become a common and effective method for inferring the geographic origins of a wide range of materials in various research disciplines, including archaeology. In recent years, such isotope approaches have also become more rigorous and quantitative, and increasingly make use of isoscapes (isotope...

  • Exploring Roman Army Supply Networks on the British frontiers: A Multi-isotope Approach (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Leïa Mion. Hongjiao Ma. Peter Guest. Angela Lamb. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How did the Roman Empire supply its very large frontier garrisons? Maintaining provision was key to the success of Roman imperialism, but we still know remarkably little about how Romans soldiers on the frontiers were supplied and the impact this had on the provincial countryside and its population. This paper...

  • Exploring Social and Economic Change at the Bronze Age-Iron Age Transition in Southern Britain: A Multi-isotope and Zooarchaeological Approach (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Madgwick. Carmen Esposito. Angela Lamb.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (ca. 800–400 BC) was a time of great transition in various parts of Europe, largely relating to climatic deterioration and the breakdown of networks surrounding the production and trade of Bronze. In southern Britain this saw the rise of a new site type, commonly termed a midden....

  • Integrating Isotope Analysis with Empirical Measures of Vitamin D Status: New Directions in the Study of Diet and Deficiency (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Orsolya Czére. Baukje de Roos. Eléa Gutierrez. Gary Duncan. Kate Britton.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analytical techniques are increasingly employed alongside other innovative methods to gain a fuller understanding of past life-histories. Recent developments in biomedical sciences have offered non-invasive means of quantifying vitamin D status in individuals through the determination of 25(OH)D3...

  • Integrating Isotopic Data across Ancient Anatolia for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tugce Yalcin. Maxwell Davis. Suzanne Pilaar Birch.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The increased availability of stable isotope data has made it possible to carry out comparative studies across space and time. In this paper, we review published and unpublished stable oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen isotope data derived from zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical, and bioarchaeological remains across...

  • Isotopes and Texts: Animal Management Strategies in Ancient Greece (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Flint Dibble. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Integrating textual sources, a largely qualitative dataset, with archaeological science, a largely quantitative dataset, is no easy task for archaeologists and historians. This paper reflects on the challenges and opportunities of integrating the textual and biochemical evidence for animal management in the ancient...

  • Life and Death in Iron Age Wales: Results from Radiocarbon Dating, Histological, and Stable Isotope Analyses from Case Study Sites (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adelle Bricking. Oliver Davis. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Iron Age in Wales is understudied compared to other regions in Britain largely due to the lack of osteological evidence. A study by Rowan Whimster in 1981 found only eight burial records in the entire country, leading to the assumption that Iron Age peoples in Wales conducted "archaeologically invisible" funerary...

  • Mobility and Animal Economy in the Early Nuragic Culture: A Case Study from South-Central Sardinia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Holt. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The origins of Sardinia’s Bronze Age Nuragic Culture remain poorly understood. Few early Nuragic sites have been systemically excavated and published, making it difficult to assess the social, political, and economic processes that took place in the Middle Bronze Age and laid the foundations for the culture’s Late...

  • Mothers on the Move? Sex- and Age-Related Differences in 87Sr/86Sr in Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Tilburg-Udenhoutseweg, the Netherlands (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Veselka. Tessi Loeffelman. Joris Brattinga. Guido Van den Eynde. Christophe Snoeck.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The urnfield cemetery of Tilburg-Udenhoutseweg was excavated in 2020 yielding a total of 230 cremation graves dating to the Late Bronze-Iron Age. The cremation graves were distributed over the entire cemetery as part of burial monuments, in clusters, or as individual graves. Osteological analyses of all the cremation...

  • Movers or Moved? An Iso-histological Approach to the Postmortem Movement of Prehispanic Maya Human Remains (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Asta Rand. Richard Madgwick.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Death was not the end for many members of Prehispanic Maya communities (250 BC–1560 AD). Indeed, the inclusion of human remains in structures that continued to function indicates that the dead (or their significance to the living) maintained social if not biological vitality. Although there is also ample evidence that...

  • TULAR: Transculturality and Social Innovation in Proto-Etruscan Areas of Pre-Roman Italy (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Carmen Esposito. Richard Madgwick. Wolfgang Müller. Stefano Benazzi.

    This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human mobility has played a vital role in shaping societies, both in the past and present. From the circulation of people to the biocultural integration of individuals, these population dynamics have triggered fundamental transitions in our socio-political landscape. The early first millennium BC in Italy was marked...