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Interpreting early land management through compound specific stable isotope analyses of archaeological soils
Author(s) -
Simpson I. A.,
Bol R.,
Bull I. D.,
Evershed R. P.,
Petzke K.J.,
Dockrill S. J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(19990715)13:13<1315::aid-rcm629>3.0.co;2-0
Subject(s) - soil water , grassland , chemistry , stable isotope ratio , environmental chemistry , isotope analysis , delta , isotope , isotopes of carbon , earth science , archaeology , soil science , ecology , environmental science , geology , total organic carbon , oceanography , geography , physics , quantum mechanics , biology , aerospace engineering , engineering
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. δ 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 δ 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. δ 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. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.