Stable Isotope Analysis for Provenance, Diet Reconstruction and Archaeological Mobility
This community applies stable isotope analysis to determine the geographical origin of materials, reconstruct past diets, and track human and animal mobility across time.
The work centers on measuring ratios of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and strontium in biological and environmental samples. Recurring applications include tracing the geographical origin of food products like wine and asparagus, analyzing human bone collagen to infer life history and diet, and studying population movements during the Iron and Bronze Ages. Methods frequently involve mass spectrometry and isotope fractionation modeling. The research spans archaeological science, marine ecology, and food authentication, with a strong focus on using isotopic signatures as evidence for origin and movement.
Strontium research accounts for the largest share of this community's output, representing 3.9% of all tracked strontium research, while carbon research contributes the highest paper count with 4,169 papers. Nitrogen and oxygen also feature prominently, with 2,016 and 1,847 papers respectively.
The community comprises 22,332 papers, publishing most frequently in the Marine Ecology Progress Series, the Journal of Archaeological Science, and Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.
Recent work includes determining metals in wine using ICP-OES, modeling water mixing in the critical zone, and compiling global bioavailable strontium isotope data.