{"id":2052,"date":"2014-06-16T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moocs.southampton.ac.uk\/portus\/?p=809"},"modified":"2015-11-06T22:35:08","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T22:35:08","slug":"scientific-analysis-of-human-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2014\/06\/16\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific analysis of human remains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You have seen in the course in the <a title=\"Scientific Finds Analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/www.futurelearn.com\/courses\/portus\/steps\/10873\/progress\">Scientific Finds Analysis<\/a> step this week the range of ways in which finds are analysed. I wanted to mention one form of analysis I have been involved with that relates to those techniques employed at Portus.<\/p>\n<p>Human remains are also analysed using other scientific techniques such as carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis which uses the ratios of heavier and lighter atoms in bones as a way of exploring the diet of people at Portus, or analysis of oxygen and strontium isotopes in teeth which can identify the location an individual was living in childhood (when their teeth were forming). Ancient DNA can sometimes be extracted from human remains to identify genetic relationships, or genetic material surviving from past bacterial infection to identify diseases.<\/p>\n<p>We have used similar techniques in the past to identify family groups in a Neolithic cemetery (c. 2600 BC) in eastern Germany where strontium isotopes also showed the adult females all grew up elsewhere (they were exogamous). They were from another community, perhaps 70km away, creating a kinship network between the two communities, a helpful strategy at times of hardship. Unfortunately, these families appear to have met a violent end as revealed by the pattern of injuries on their bones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">\n<span class=\"citation\">\n\n\n    <span class=\"creators\"> \n      <span class=\"person_name\">Haak, W.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Brandt, G.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">de Jong, H.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Meyer, C.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Ganslmeier, R.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Heyd, V.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Hawkesworth, C.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Pike, A.W.G.<\/span>, <span class=\"person_name\">Meller, H.<\/span> and <span class=\"person_name\">Alt, K.<\/span><\/span>\n\n\t\n\n\n     <span class=\"date\"> (2008) <\/span> \n    <span class=\"title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/eprints.soton.ac.uk\/343243\/\">Ancient DNA, strontium isotopes and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the later stone age.<\/a><\/span>\n\n    <span class=\"publication\"><em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America<\/em><\/span>, <span class=\"volume\">105<\/span>, <span class=\"number\">(47)<\/span>, <span class=\"pagerange\">18226-18231<\/span>. <span class=\"doi\"> (<a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.0807592105\">doi:10.1073\/pnas.0807592105<\/a>).<\/span>  \n    \n  \n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have seen in the course in the Scientific Finds Analysis step this week the range of ways in which finds are analysed. I wanted to mention one form of analysis I have been involved with that relates to those techniques employed at Portus. Human remains are also analysed using other scientific techniques such as carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[956,1],"tags":[848],"class_list":["post-2052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioarch_osteo_soton","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized","column","threecol"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Scientific analysis of human remains - Archaeology Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2014\/06\/16\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientific analysis of human remains - Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You have seen in the course in the Scientific Finds Analysis step this week the range of ways in which finds are analysed. I wanted to mention one form of analysis I have been involved with that relates to those techniques employed at Portus. Human remains are also analysed using other scientific techniques such as carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2014\/06\/16\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-16T10:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-06T22:35:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alistair Pike\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alistair Pike\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/16\\\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/16\\\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alistair Pike\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e411acad220ef293d3f403a70eeb8ea4\"},\"headline\":\"Scientific analysis of human remains\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-16T10:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-11-06T22:35:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/16\\\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"articleSection\":[\"Bioarch Osteo @Soton (Bos)\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/16\\\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/16\\\/scientific-analysis-of-human-remains\\\/\",\"name\":\"Scientific analysis of human remains - 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