scholarly journals A Shattered Tomb of Scattered People: The Alvastra Dolmen in Light of Stable Isotopes

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-141
Author(s):  
Elin Fornander
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Geographic Origins ◽  
Isotope Analyses

Skeletal remains from the dolmen in Alvastra are ap- proached from the perspective of isotope analyses, providing insights into dietary and residential pat- terns. Radiocarbon dates from the interred individu- als provide evidence of long-lasting burial practices which were still active when the Alvastra Pile Dwell- ing was built. The isotopic record indicates dispersed geographic origins among the buried individuals. It is suggested that Alvastra, with the dolmen as a focal point, was established as a meeting place and sacred space already several centuries before the time of the Pile Dwelling.

scholarly journals Isotopic and Genetic Evidence for Migration in Medieval England

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-61
Author(s):  
Mark Jobling ◽  
Andrew Millard
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Dna Variation ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Modelling Framework ◽  
Isotope Analyses

Two sources of evidence, ratios of stable isotopes and sequences of DNA molecules, can illuminate histories of human migration. Studies of skeletal remains from medieval cemeteries in England, using oxygen and strontium isotope analyses to investigate places of childhood residence, reveal more mobility than anticipated and sometimes migration from unexpected directions. Whole-genome sequencing of a few individuals provides new insights into Anglo-Saxon migration and the diversity of origins of individuals buried in Roman York. Analysis of DNA variation in modern samples provides only indirect evidence about the medieval period, and considerable uncertainty about the timing of any deduced past migration events. This chapter argues that an explicit modelling framework should be developed permitting combined interpretation of DNA data (modern and ancient) and isotope data which, when applied to the same samples, will provide new insights about migration and mobility, and about the reliability and interpretation of these two sources of evidence.

scholarly journals Evolutionary history and palaeoecology of brown bear in North-East Siberia re-examined using ancient DNA and stable isotopes from skeletal remains

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba Rey-Iglesia ◽  
Ana García-Vázquez ◽  
Eve C. Treadaway ◽  
Johannes van der Plicht ◽  
Gennady F. Baryshnikov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Brown Bear ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
East Siberia ◽  
North East

Burial

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihwa Choi
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Social Imaginaries ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World

Burials had become a focal point of some Confucian efforts to build a socio-moral order based on Confucian norms. “Simple burial,” idealized by scholar-officials, used a simple pit tomb with minimal burial items, based on the mainstream Confucian tradition of rejecting literary and material expression of the concrete social imaginaries of the world-beyond. Its focus rested with a tomb inscription tablet highlighting the public accomplishments and virtue of the deceased. On the other hand, many rich merchants were able to conduct a “lavish burial,” believing that the material furnishing of the tomb would actually influence the soul’s transitional process and its well-being in the world-beyond. Nevertheless, there were some exceptional cases that did not fit into the general pattern of correlations between social groups and burial practices, which suggests that tombs tended to remain as private spaces.

scholarly journals Isotopic evidence of connectivity between an inshore vegetated lagoon (nursery habitat) and coastal artificial reefs (adult habitats) for the reef fish Lethrinus lentjan on the Terengganu coast, Malaysia

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 1675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dung Quang Le ◽  
Siau Yin Fui ◽  
Rumeaida Mat Piah ◽  
Toyoho Ishimura ◽  
Yuji Sano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Nursery Habitat ◽  
Artificial Reefs ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Adult Fish ◽  
Spatial Change ◽  
Opaque Zone ◽  
Coastal Conservation ◽  
Nursery Habitats ◽  
Isotope Analyses

Stable isotope analyses of muscle tissue (δ13Cmuscle and δ15Nmuscle) and otoliths (δ13Cotolith and δ18Ootolith) were used to retrospectively track habitat uses of Lethrinus lentjan, and to determine any association between Setiu Lagoon (nursery habitat) and coastal artificial reefs (CARs; adult habitats) on the Terengganu coast, Malaysia. Muscle stable isotopes exhibited a spatial change from inshore to offshore habitats associated with growth, possibly related to the reef-ward movement of the fish. Otolith stable isotopes of adult fish from CARs were measured in juvenile (from outside the core to the first opaque zone of otolith) and adult (the edge of otolith) portions and were compared with those of juveniles from Setiu Lagoon, suggesting that the adult fish may not primarily use the lagoon as a nursery before ontogenetically migrating to CARs. The effects of coastal currents between monsoonal seasons could reorientate offshore juvenile migration; hence, adult cohorts in CARs may be replenished from various nursery habitats along the coast. Additionally, similarities in the δ18Ootolith values of juvenile and adult sections suggested that some individuals may not spend their juvenile phases in shallow estuarine habitats. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that coastal conservation strategies take into account multiple nursery habitats rather than a single one.

Stable isotope analyses of mammal skeletal remains of Holocene age from European Russia: A way to trace dietary and environmental changes

Geobios ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Iacumin ◽  
V. Nikolaev ◽  
L. Genoni ◽  
M. Ramigni ◽  
Ya G. Ryskov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
European Russia ◽  
Stable Isotope Analyses ◽  
Isotope Analyses

scholarly journals Comparative Decalcification Methods, Radiocarbon Dates, and Stable Isotopes of the VIRI Bones

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 837-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noreen Tuross
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Oxygen Isotopes ◽  
Preparation Methods ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Consensus Values ◽  
Nitrogen And Oxygen Isotopes

The Fifth International Radiocarbon Comparison (VIRI) provided a suite of 5 bone samples with consensus ages ranging from 969 to 39,305 14C yr BP (Scott et al. 2010). These bones were used herein in a comparison of decalcification methods using either HCl or EDTA to produce collagen, and the results demonstrate age concordance between both preparation methods and the VIRI consensus values. Additional isotopic analyses of the collagen (δ13C, δ15N, and δ18O) illustrate the increasing sensitivity of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes in assessing gelatin degradation.

scholarly journals Stable isotopes of Hawaiian spiders reflect substrate properties along a chronosequence

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan R. Kennedy ◽  
Todd E. Dawson ◽  
Rosemary G. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Soil Chemistry ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Plant Leaves ◽  
Chemical Signatures ◽  
Soil Stoichiometry ◽  
Substrate Properties ◽  
Age Structured ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Predatory Arthropods

The Hawaiian Islands offer a unique opportunity to test how changes in the properties of an isolated ecosystem are propagated through the organisms that occur within that ecosystem. The age-structured arrangement of volcanic-derived substrates follows a regular progression over space and, by inference, time. We test how well documented successional changes in soil chemistry and associated vegetation are reflected in organisms at higher trophic levels—specifically, predatory arthropods (spiders)—across a range of functional groups. We focus on three separate spider lineages: one that builds capture webs, one that hunts actively, and one that specializes on eating other spiders. We analyze spiders from three sites across the Hawaiian chronosequence with substrate ages ranging from 200 to 20,000 years. To measure the extent to which chemical signatures of terrestrial substrates are propagated through higher trophic levels, we use standard stable isotope analyses of nitrogen and carbon, with plant leaves included as a baseline. The target taxa show the expected shift in isotope ratios ofδ15N with trophic level, from plants to cursorial spiders to web-builders to spider eaters. Remarkably, organisms at all trophic levels also precisely reflect the successional changes in the soil stoichiometry of the island chronosequence, demonstrating how the biogeochemistry of the entire food web is determined by ecosystem succession of the substrates on which the organisms have evolved.

Human Skeletal Remains Recovered from a Napo Funerary Urn in the Ecuadorian Amazon

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole A. Jastremski ◽  
Alejandra Sánchez-Polo
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Long Bones ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Human Skeleton ◽  
Height Range ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
Ecuadorian Amazon ◽  
Bone Preservation ◽  
History Of

There is very little published literature regarding pre-Columbian burial practices that include human skeletal remains of the Napo culture (A.D. 1188–1480) in the western Amazon. Due to poor bone preservation and a history of looting practices, bioarchaeologists have rarely been able to collect, analyze, and interpret skeletal remains. Here, we provide the initial publication of a human skeleton from the Ecuadorian Amazon belonging to the Napo culture, preserved in a funerary urn acquired by the Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado in Quito, Ecuador. This partial adult skeleton, radiocarbon dated to cal A.D. 1021–1155, consists primarily of broken long bones that indicate a robust individual with a height range of 160–170 cm. Although no trauma was observed, pathological conditions including cysts and likely Osgood-Schlatter’s disease were present and robust muscle insertions were noted. Taphonomic damage from termite osteophagy was inferred by the presence of round bore holes, cavities, tunneling, and cortical etching on the humerus, femur, and tibia. The urn itself is an anthropomorphic polychrome vessel that opens at the bottom, with six equally spaced holes to facilitate closure. The urn burial is similar to those of other Amazonian Polychrome Tradition cultures located to the east in Brazil.   Las prácticas funerarias precolombinas que incluyen restos humanos esqueléticos de la cultura Napo (1188–1480 D.C.), en el oeste de la Amazonía, han sido escasamente dadas a conocer en la literatura arqueológica. Debido a la pobre preservación de los huesos en ese medio y a una dilatada trayectoria de huaquerismo, desde la bioarqueología no ha sido posible recoger, analizar e interpretar restos humanos. Este artículo trata de solventar este vacío al atender desde una perspectiva bioarqueológica los restos óseos humanos provenientes de la Amazonía ecuatoriana pertenecientes a la cultura Napo, preservados en una urna funeraria que se conserva en el Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado en Quito, Ecuador. Por un lado, este esqueleto parcial del que se conservan huesos largos fragmentados de un adulto fue datado mediante técnicas radiométricas entre 1021 y 1155 cal D.C.Habría sido una persona robusta, con una altura que oscilaría entre los 160 y 170 cm. Aunque no se ha observado ningún traumatismo, las patologías registradas incluyen quistes, como los debidos a la enfermedad de Osgood-Schlatter, e inserciones musculares robustas. Entre las afecciones tafonómicas más relevantes, se han apreciado las causadas por osteofagia de termitas, las cuales se infieren por la presencia de perforaciones redondas, cavidades, túneles y decapado cortical en húmero, fémur y tibia. Por otro lado, la urna es un ejemplar antropomorfo policromado de apertura basal con seis orificios espaciados que ayudaban a cerrarla. El entierro en urna es similar a aquellos otros de las culturas de la Tradición Polícroma Amazónica localizadas al este en Brasil.

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