Research Interests

My interests in stable isotopes are defined by the work of the group as a whole. That is to say in recovering palaeodietary and environmental information concerning humans and animals in an archaeological context. This work has close connections with radiocarbon dating (where carbon flux is an essential basis), with the diagenetic alteration of bone during burial, and with the identification of surviving biomolecules.

Since collagen bulk carbon and nitrogen isotopic values give at best only two values with which to describe and quantify diet, I am concerned to expand the basis of information available. One approach being taken is at the individual amino acid level. Another is the study of other isotopes such as sulphur, hydrogen and oxygen, and also collaborative development work on calcium and boron.

Advances in methodology are likely to come from the interaction between field data, experimental studies, including living populations and an appropriate level of metabolic modelling, and the research of the group aims to address these. A particular developing interest of mine is bone turnover rates and the recovery of time-dependent information.