Interpreting early land management through compound specific stable isotope analyses of archaeological soils

• Published in: Rapid communications in mass spectrometry Vol. 13; no. 13; pp. 1315 - 1319
• Main Authors: Simpson, I. A., Bol, R., Bull, I. D., Evershed, R. P., Petzke, K.-J., Dockrill, S. J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 15-07-1999
• ISSN: 0951-4198; 1097-0231
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0231(19990715)13:13<1315::AID-RCM629>3.0.CO;2-0

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 15N amino acid signals demonstrate differences between manured grassland, unmanured grassland and continuous cereal cultivation under long‐term experimental land use control conditions, with δ 15N 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 13C 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.