Developing isoscapes and testing lead isotopes of human tooth enamel

Buckley, Gina M, State College PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Virginie Renson at the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center (MURR), this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the applicability of lead isotope analysis in human tooth enamel as a means for studying migration in non-temperate climates where preservation of human tissues tends to be poor. This study will also develop lead isotopic baselines across important regions of population growth and human movement. Research will combine methods from archaeometry and environmental sciences to produce universal, detailed tools future researchers can use to identify paleomobility using lead isotopes and tooth enamel. This project will actively involve the collaboration and training of students and the creation and distribution of educational activities for children. This project will examine the potential use of lead (Pb) isotope signatures in human dentition as a means of studying migration in an important area of population growth and expansion. Lead isotopes (206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, 208Pb/204Pb) have largely been used in archaeological science to trace artifact provenance and are now also being applied with success to the study of human paleomobility in traditionally temperate climates. However, this methodology has yet to be developed in regions where the preservation of prehistoric skeletal material is poor. This postdoctoral research project will address two issues. First, 150 geological and environmental samples will be collected to develop a 20nPb/204Pb isoscape to determine if the geological terrains of this region exhibit distinct Pb isotopoic ratios that can be used in archaeological migration and provenance studies. Second, procedures will be developed from archaeometry and environmental sciences to understand if diagenetic alteration from taphonomic processes, including contamination from modern lead sources, can be systematically detected apart from in vivo lead concentrations in human tooth enamel. Tooth enamel specimens (n = 75) will come from known hubs of migrant activity. Results are expected to advance archaeological migration studies by directly testing the applicability of Pb isotopes in low concentration, low preservation materials and by allowing researchers to study shorter-distance human migration patterns through Pb isoscapes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.