Abstract
Stable isotopes of lighter elements are frequently used to understand diet and ecology of ancient population in the western world. In India however, in spite of the infrastructure being available for stable isotope analysis, its usage to date is limited to geological and oceanographical studies. Its applications in investigating archaeological questions are still uncommon. Stable isotopes can be used to satisfy various hypotheses pertaining to an archaeological site in multiple ways. In this article, taking two recent stable isotope studies into consideration (one based on human teeth and another on faunal teeth), the scope and limitations of use of stable isotope analysis in archaeology are extended in detail. The differences in selection of samples, sampling procedures, methodologies and interpretations while working on human as against faunal teeth are discussed discretely. Publisher's note: The citations and reference for Kalwankar (2013) were originally published with the incorrect date, and they have been corrected on 25/09/2020.
Highlights
Recent decades have been very rewarding for the field of archaeology, thanks to the application of biochemistry in analysing and interpreting the material and biological data obtained from the archaeological excavations
We are considering two recent stable isotope studies performed in India as examples for discussion and comparison between human and faunal tooth enamel as regards to their scope and limitations
2 Discussion Since the advent of stable isotope analysis, a vast corpus of studies has been undertaken by researchers following different methodologies
Summary
Stable isotopes of lighter elements are frequently used to understand diet and ecology of ancient population in the western world. In India in spite of the infrastructure being available for stable isotope analysis, its usage to date is limited to geological and oceanographical studies. Its applications in investigating archaeological questions are still uncommon. Stable isotopes can be used to satisfy various hypotheses pertaining to an archaeological site in multiple ways. In this article, taking two recent stable isotope studies into consideration (one based on human teeth and another on faunal teeth), the scope and limitations of use of stable isotope analysis in archaeology are extended in detail. The differences in selection of samples, sampling procedures, methodologies and interpretations while working on human as against faunal teeth are discussed discretely
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