Isotopes and impact: a cautionary tale

There can be no doubt that isotopic studies have made a huge contribution to archaeology in recent years, so much so that isotope archaeology is now seen as an essential subdiscipline of archaeology in much the same way as isotope geochemistry is a key subdiscipline of geochemistry. Ignoring for cur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity 2011-06, Vol.85 (328), p.631-638
Main Author: Pollard, A.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeological dating
Archaeology
Chemistry
Debate
Evolutionary biology
Geoarchaeology
History of archaeology
Innovations
Isotope geology
Isotopes
Methodology
Methods
Radiocarbon dating
Research methods
Science
Study and teaching
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Summary:There can be no doubt that isotopic studies have made a huge contribution to archaeology in recent years, so much so that isotope archaeology is now seen as an essential subdiscipline of archaeology in much the same way as isotope geochemistry is a key subdiscipline of geochemistry. Ignoring for current purposes the contribution made by the measurement of a particular radioactive isotope of carbon (14C) since 1950, we can date the beginnings of isotope archaeology to the mid 1960s with the first measurements of lead isotopes in archaeological metals and slags by Brill and Wampler (1965, 1967). This was followed by carbon stable isotopes in human bone collagen in the late 1970s, building on previous work measuring σ13C in archaeological bone for radiocarbon determinations (Vogel & Van der Merwe 1977; Van der Merwe & Vogel 1978). Other isotopes followed rapidly, such as nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and hydrogen for archaeological, palaeoecological or palaeoclimatological purposes and, more recently, the heavier radiogenic isotopes of strontium and neodymium for determining the provenance of organic and inorganic materials (Pollard & Heron 2008).
ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.1017/S0003598X00068034