Quantifying Inter-Laboratory Variability in Stable Isotope Analysis of Ancient Skeletal Remains

摘要: Over the past forty years, stable isotope analysis of bone (and tooth) collagen and hydroxyapatite has become a mainstay archaeological paleoanthropological reconstructions paleodiet paleoenvironment. Despite this method's frequent use across anthropological subdisciplines beyond), present work represents first attempt at gauging effects inter-laboratory variability engendered by differences in a) sample preparation, b) (instrumentation, working standards, data calibration). Replicate analyses 14C-dated ancient human twenty-one paleoecological laboratories revealed significant isotopic variation for both carbonate. For collagen, we found sizeable range 1.8‰ δ13Ccol 1.9‰ δ15Ncol among laboratories, but an interpretatively insignificant average pairwise difference 0.2‰ 0.4‰ respectively. observed increased to troublingly large 3.5‰ δ13Cap 6.7‰ δ18Oap, with 0.6‰ disquieting 2.0‰ δ18Oap. In order assess preparation versus on subset samples prepared participating were analyzed second time same instrument. Based duplicate analysis, it was determined that roughly half could be attributed other resulting from These findings have serious implications choices made extraction target biomolecules, comparison results obtained different interpretation small values. To address issues arising comparisons, devise novel measure term Minimum Meaningful Difference (MMD), demonstrate its application.