This project investigates how amino acid stable isotope analysis can provide more detailed insights into past human diets. Past diets are often reconstructed by measuring carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in bone collagen. However, conventional analysis of this bulk protein provides only limited information, and different combinations of foods can produce similar isotope values.
By separating collagen into its constituent amino acids and measuring their individual carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, much more detailed information about the foods people and animals consumed can be gained. This project analyses the amino acid stable isotope composition of modern plant foods and consumer bone collagen. These experimental datasets are then used to investigate diet in archaeological remains, helping to develop more precise approaches to reconstructing food consumption in the past.
Principal Investigator: Magdalena Blanz
Mentor: Amy Styring
