Theme:
2. Archaeological Sciences, Humanities and the Digital era: Bridging the Gaps
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Isotopic Baselines and Beyond: Expanding Archaeological Narratives and Reevaluating the Use of Baselines in Isotope Bioarchaeology
Content:
Isotopic analysis is now a common tool in archaeological studies, being applied to answer diverse questions about diet, mobility, trade, and landscape use. A fundamental aspect of enabling meaningful comparisons of individual measurements within the broader context of bio- and zoo-archaeological research lies in the construction of comprehensive baseline datasets from modern and archaeological samples (environmental data, faunal or human remains) for a variety of isotope systems (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, strontium, sulphur). These baselines allow researchers to address different, more complex, and broader research questions, such as the development of isoscapes for elements like strontium, oxygen, and more recently, sulphur, which facilitates the assessment of mobility in ancient populations or the use of faunal data for modelling of past diets. The construction of isotopic baselines is often difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and sometimes samples are just not available, which given their applicability and usefulness, underlines the paramount importance of increased availability of the data for research.
In this session, supported by IsoArcH (www.isoarch.eu) a community-driven, open and collaborative database of georeferenced isotopic measures of samples from all time periods and all around the world, we extend a warm invitation to researchers both building and using baseline isotopic data. We seek contributions to further expand the interpretations and narratives achievable through isotope analysis on human, faunal, or material remains from any place or time period. It is crucial to acknowledge that baselines are dynamic and are continuously evolving over time, which allows for the reinterpretation of legacy data. Accordingly, we encourage presentations revisiting past interpretations from isotopic data in light of new baselines. Lastly, we especially welcome presentations that delve into misapplications of isotopic baselines, and presentations that highlight the integration of archaeological information alongside isotopic measurements.
Keywords:
IsoArcH, Isotopic analysis, Baseline datasets
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Kévin Salesse (Czech Republic) 1
Co-organisers:
Hannah F. James (Belgium) 2
Lisette Kootker (Netherlands) 3
Christina Cheung (Hong Kong SAR China) 4
Affiliations:
1. Department of Anthropology, Masaryk University
2. Archaeology, Environmental changes & Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
3. Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
4. Department of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong
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