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The measurement of the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in human bone collagen revolutionized archaeology in the late 1970s, when it was shown to be a precise indicator for the spread of maize agriculture in North America. Diagenetic alteration of the collagen was shown to be essentially irrelevant in such work, unlike the problems of post-mortem alteration which confused the studies of dietary reconstruction from trace elements in bone, which were being carried out at the same time. Stable isotopes in collagen have gone on to become ubiquitous in archaeology, addressing such major issues as the dietary change from marine to terrestrial protein sources during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Europe. Comparison of stable isotopes in different elements of the same human skeleton have also been used to detect lifetime mobility, using the fact that some skeletal elements are remodelled faster than others. Other aspects, such as gender and status differences in dietary habits, and the effect of weaning on infant skeletons, have also been studied. The greater durability and resistance to diagenesis of dental enamel has also been used to study mobility, and to identify ‘foreigners’ in burial assemblages, using the isotopic measurements of strontium and oxygen. The stability of enamel has also allowed dietary behaviour to be studied on fossil hominins, using measurements of carbon and oxygen isotopes in the carbonate phase within the enamel. It is now relatively routine to carry out ‘isotopic ecology’ studies in many parts of the world, where human and animal bones are used to reconstruct complete food webs. The chemical and isotopic study of bone has been one of the great success stories of archaeological chemistry over the last 50 years.

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