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Stable isotopes in archaeobotanical research

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Abstract

In recent decades the analysis of stable isotopes in plants has become a useful method to infer natural and anthropogenic effects on the growing conditions of plants. Here we present a review of the state-of-the-art regarding the use of stable isotopes in plant macroremains. After providing a brief theoretical and methodological background, we will concentrate on the most common applications developed so far: reconstruction of climate and crop growing conditions, and crop provenancing. Finally, we will discuss current methodological challenges, and potential new directions for research.

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Acknowledgments

JLA and JPF received support from ERC-Advanced grant 230561 (AGRIWESTMED) and Spanish project PALEOISOMED (CGL2009-13079-C02). JPF is supported by the Ramón y Cajal programme (RYC-2008-02050, MCINN, Spain). SR thanks the German Research Foundation (DFG) for financial support (RI 1193/6-2). The researches of GF are supported by Italian PRIN project IDEAL (2010H8WPKL_004) within the research unit of University of Salento.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Girolamo Fiorentino

  2. Department of Crop and Forest Science-AGROTECNIO Center, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Juan Pedro Ferrio

  3. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Great Britain

    Amy Bogaard

  4. Department of Plant Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    José Luis Araus

  5. Institute for Archaeological Science and Senckenberg Research Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoecology, University of Tübingen, Tubingen, Germany

    Simone Riehl

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  1. Girolamo Fiorentino
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  2. Juan Pedro Ferrio
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  3. Amy Bogaard
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  4. José Luis Araus
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  5. Simone Riehl
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Correspondence to Girolamo Fiorentino.

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Communicated by F. Bittmann.

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Fiorentino, G., Ferrio, J.P., Bogaard, A. et al. Stable isotopes in archaeobotanical research. Veget Hist Archaeobot 24, 215–227 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-014-0492-9

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