A Novel Application of δ15N Values to Segregate Human and Non-Human Remains

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists are routinely tasked with sorting and identifying osseous remains in complex assemblages. When dealing with non-diagnostic fragments or significant taphonomic alterations, a straightforward determination of human or non-human based on osteological analysis is not always feasible. This study tests the use of nitrogen isotope delta values (𝛿15N) of bone collagen for determining if osseous remains are human or not. Previous research, using a large dataset of modern casework samples from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory, calculated lower limits for human bone collagen 𝛿15N values that can be used to assess whether osseous remains “are probably” non-human (7.50‰) or “are” non-human (6.35‰). This study builds on that previous work by testing the applicability of the limits in broader archaeological contexts. We applied them to bone collagen data for humans and non-humans found in the published archaeological literature (>30 studies, sample size ~1500). Our findings support the conclusion that 𝛿15N values can be useful for differentiating human and non-human osseous remains and have applications globally within archaeological contexts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38929.0