Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
15
Isotopes
Jonathan D. Bethard
INTRODUCTION
In scholarship concerning modern human skeletal biology, novel methodological mile-
stones have occasionally been introduced to the field with unmatched potential for tackling
the previously unanswerable. Such was the case when
Vogel and van der Merwe (1977)
pub-
lished the first paper linking evidence for maize agriculture with the isotopic composition of
human bone. In her recent review,
Katzenberg (2008)
described the initial application of
isotopic chemistry to anthropological questions as a kind of real-life science fiction. In this
description, Katzenberg aptly described the anthropological “buzz” surrounding stable
isotope analysis when it was first introduced to the field in the late 1970s, as scholars realized
that a powerful new tool for unlocking information about the past had been introduced. The
application of isotope analysis to research questions in skeletal biology underscores the
importance of creative, interdisciplinary scholarship.
After the discovery of stable isotopes in 1913 by the Nobel Laureate Joseph John Thomson,
decades of research in the natural sciences followed (
Craig, 1954
;
Gavelin, 1957
;
Compston,
1960
). Archaeological uses of the radiocarbon isotope (
14
C) followed suit after its application
to radiometric dating was discovered in 1949 and questions turned to calculating chronology
and temporal context (
Hall, 1967; Bender, 1968
). Since these initial breakthroughs, stable
isotope analysis has become a mainstay in the skeletal biologist's methodological toolkit,
primarily due to widespread adoption of automated mass spectrometers (the instrumenta-
tion that analyzes isotopes) in the biological, ecological, and geological sciences. In the
twenty-first century, scholars who wish to answer anthropological questions with stable
isotope data have numerous well-qualified laboratories to choose from, even if their own
institutions do not house dedicated stable isotope core facilities. In this chapter, I will outline
the kinds of research questions to which stable isotope analyses can be applied, introduce the
technical aspects of stable isotope analyses, discuss methodological issues related to the
preparation of bones and teeth for isotope analysis, and conclude with a case study illus-
trating the application of stable isotope analysis to a bioarchaeological context from pre-
Columbian Peru. Like Cabana and colleagues (Chapter 16, this volume), this chapter is
intended to equip the interested skeletal biologist with an overview of stable isotope analysis
