A Common Analytical Language: Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis as a Means for Collaboration between Archaeology and Ecology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists first embraced stable isotope analysis decades ago and have used this tool to study many aspects of human ecology, including diet, movement patterns, and the domestication of plants and animals (to name a few). In comparison to bulk tissue isotope analysis, technological advances in the analysis of individual compounds such as amino and fatty acids provide a relatively untouched analytical frontier for archaeologists interested in human ecology and nutrition. In addition, the flora and fauna present in archaeological sites offer a rich and unique source of information for historical ecologists interested in assessing how human activities have influenced energy flow in food webs and the prehistoric ecology of animals that now live in relict popualtions because of historic over-exploitation. This paper will review the basic biochemistry required to interpret compound-specific isotope data, the analytical methods used to produce such data, as well as some of the recent approaches that have been developed to study energy flow in food webs, trophic ecology, and human ecol-physiology and nutrition. This common analytical language creates ample opportunities for collaboration between archaeologists and ecologists to work on important questions in human history, plant and animal historical ecology, and conservation biology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25317