Interpreting early land management through compound specific stable isotope analyses of archaeological soils
✍ Scribed by I. A. Simpson; R. Bol; I. D. Bull; R. P. Evershed; K.-J. Petzke; S. J. Dockrill
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 82 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0951-4198
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✦ Synopsis
Compound specific stable isotope analyses of managed soils using isotope ratio mass spectrometry have been undertaken as a means of determining early land use practices. d 15 N amino acid signals demonstrate differences between manured grassland, unmanured grassland and continuous cereal cultivation under long-term experimental land use control conditions, with d 15 N in hydrophobic amino acids providing the most distinctive signals. Analysis of early modern/medieval and of Bronze age anthropogenic soils from Orkney demonstrates that such signals are retained in archaeological contexts. d 13 C analyses of n-alkanoic acid components of the fossil, Bronze Age, anthropogenic soils suggest a major terrestrial input to these soils, with uniform composition of formation materials. Surficial soils demonstrate the assimilation of isotopically lighter carbon, providing a means of assessing the mobility of the n-alkanoic acids within soils and sediments.