Claire Thomson
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Alicia Ventresca Miller
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Department of Anthropology / LSA
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 1 (9:00am – 9:50am)
Authors: Claire Thomson, Iride Tomazic, Christina Cartaciano-Marino, Alicia Ventresca-Miller
Abstract
Bone collagen in ancient human and animal remains is commonly used in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Collagen is useful because it remains intact for a long period of time (Ambrose 1990, 431). Comparing 12C/13C ratios provides insight into the broad type of plants and animals the individual consumed on average over their lifetime, while nitrogen-15 values yield information about the individual’s trophic level (DeNiro and Epstein 1978; Stantis et al. 2015). Together, carbon and nitrogen data allow for inferences about whether an individual’s diet was terrestrial or marine-based (Stantis et al. 2015). There are multiple differing methods to extract bone collagen from an ancient bone sample, many of which are based on some form of the early Longin method. The bone is either broken into fine pieces and demineralized in acid before gelatinization of the collagen in hot, mildly acidic water, or whole bone chunks are demineralized to obtain pseudomorphs (Longin 1970; Maspero et al. 2011; Sealy et al. 2014). Each laboratory utilizes its own specific approach to collagen extraction, creating a barrier to new researchers learning this process. This paper presents a clear method for extracting bone collagen in a typical laboratory setting, with the intent of creating a tool for the efficient training of new laboratory members and undergraduate students. The procedure was created over the course of several months during the collection of bone collagen data for samples from the Khovsgol region of Mongolia dating to the Mongol period. Possible alterations to the method presented here are also discussed.
