ANTH 0538 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Paleopathology, Syphilis, Visceral Leishmaniasis
Document Summary
Isotopes analysis: carbon 12 (12c), carbon 13 (13c), and carbon 14 (14c, taken in from the air by plants during photosynthesis, c-3 plants take in less 13c. Fruits, nuts, veggies, rice, wheat, legumes, etc: c-4 plants take in more 13c. Corn, millet, sorgum, etc: cam plants sometimes take in 13c. Desert plants, etc: ratio passes into the animals eating plants and fixes in bone tissues. C-3 is more positive carbon value, c-4 is less positive. If animals eat both, their ratio is the average. Ratio change by -5. 0 as you move up the food chain. Person eating cow: 16, etc: nitrogen/isotope analysis. Plants take up the isotopes through their roots. Marine plants (except shellfish) have higher 15n to 14n ratio. Allows us to tell what foods the person ate. Carnivores lose 14n through urine, therefore will have higher. Iso-foodscape: type of plants that would"ve been in the area. Diagenesis: what happens to the bones while buried in the soil.
