Finding Stable Isotope Signatures of Fauna of Northwest California: A Tool for Anthropological Investigations

Presentation Year

2019

College or Department

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Short Description of your Research or Creative Project (700 characters or less)

Anthropologists use Stable isotope analyses to understand environments where past and present human cultures lived. This project starts a database of isotopic signatures for the region of Humboldt County, in northwestern California, as a baseline for further research. I prepared samples at HSU Archaeology and Biological Anthropology Research labs for Carbon (C) and Oxygen (O) stable isotopes using H2O2 Hydroxyapatite-Carbonate protocol. The samples will be sent to Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz and analyzed for δ13C & δ18O. As database entries increase, evidence of stable isotopic signatures of specific areas in northwest California may be identified.

Permission to Publish Work

No