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The five types of IsoArcH members with their estimated numbers indicated. In 2022, the community consists of over 30 0 0 followers, more than 70 0 users, over 10 0 adherents, at least 65 contributors and more than 10 sponsors.
Context in source publication
Similar publications
In 2016, a rescue excavation at the Jičín Natural Sciences Centre and Observatory uncovered a mass grave containing multiple commingled individuals buried in several layers. Zinc buttons and clothing remnants possibly related to eighteenth–nineteenth-century military uniforms found in the grave suggest that these individuals were soldiers. During t...
Generative models are an underutilized tool in bioarchaeology that make it possible to directly interrogate how age-at-death is influenced by varied risk of exposure to stressors, while accounting for factors which are ordinarily invisible to bioarchaeologists. Further, the visibility of suspected differences within populations at the sorts of samp...
Engaging with the concepts of slow violence and landscapes of impunity, this article traces the United States’ long history of state-sanctioned violence against Black women that affects both their physical and mental health. The extent of this abuse is revealed by examining the skeletal and archival remains of Black women who died during the Progre...
Citations
... Data underlying the analyses and illustrations are available from the IsoArch Database: https://doi.org/10.48530/isoarch.2024.005 (Salesse et al., 2018;Plomp et al., 2022). ...
... All the results of the isotopic and infrared analyses can be found on the open-access online IsoArcH database (Plomp et al. 2022;Salesse et al. 2018) ...
... The analyzed data is available on IsoArcH, an open database for isotopic measures of bioarcheological samples (Plomp et al. 2022; Salesse et al. 2018), through the following link: https:// doi. org/ 10. 48530/ isoar ch. ...
Objectives
Several archaeological cremation sites in Belgium have been investigated through a multidisciplinary approach. The sampling process predominantly focused on calcined ribs, diaphyses, and crania. However, previous studies rarely included teeth or the inner cortex (IC) of the otic capsule of the petrous part, both of which can provide information regarding residence and mobility during infancy and childhood. Moreover, the potential of these elements to contribute to understanding cremation practices has been largely unexplored. Therefore, this study examines the value of sampling these early‐forming skeletal tissues for the study of mobility, food consumption patterns, and cremation practices.
Materials and Methods
Two Late Bronze Age–Early Iron Age cremation sites in Belgium, Herstal (132 skeletal elements) and Court‐Saint‐Étienne (39 skeletal elements), were selected for this purpose. Mobility was examined via strontium isotope analysis, and cremation practices through stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy in Attenuated Total Reflectance mode (FTIR‐ATR).
Results
Our findings underscore the importance of sampling different skeletal elements to reconstruct life histories and interpret cremation practices. Differences between the strontium isotope ratios of infancy/childhood (IC and teeth) and those of continuously remodeling skeletal tissues (cranium, diaphysis, rib) revealed changes in food consumption, relocations throughout life, and multiple individuals within a single grave. Including petrous parts and teeth significantly affected statistical comparisons of infrared and carbon–oxygen isotope data across skeletal elements and cremation sites.
Discussion
This study highlights the value of integrating petrous parts and teeth to better understand cremation practices, mobility, and food consumption patterns, while also stressing the importance of caution when comparing sites with different sampling approaches.
... This kind of official record-keeping will only become more important to the scientific community with the exponential development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms. It is also possible to get credit for the time consuming work of building datasets with various types of analysis on materials and make them available for others 27,37 . The Open Science movement is essentially about improving the way we do science, enabling reproducibility and increasing transparency, but it is also about making more of the scientific process visible and rewarding more than the publication of articles, such as collaboration and knowledge sharing 38,39 . ...
Heritage Science has a lot to gain from the Open Science movement but faces major challenges due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, as a vast array of technological and scientific methods can be applied to any imaginable material. Historical and cultural contexts are as significant as the methods and material properties, which is something the scientific templates for research data management rarely take into account. While the FAIR data principles are a good foundation, they do not offer enough practical help to researchers facing increasing demands from funders and collaborators. In order to identify the issues and needs that arise “on the ground floor”, the staff at the Heritage Laboratory at the Swedish National Heritage Board took part in a series of workshops with case studies. The results were used to develop guides for good data practices and a list of recommended online vocabularies for standardised descriptions, necessary for findable and interoperable data. However, the project also identified areas where there is a lack of useful vocabularies and the consequences this could have for discoverability of heritage studies on materials from areas of the world that have historically been marginalised by Western culture. If Heritage Science as a global field of study is to reach its full potential this must be addressed.
... can be found in the online IsoArcH repository (https://isoarch.eu/; IsoArcH, 2024; Salesse et al., 2018;Plomp et al., 2022). The data is available under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. ...
Understanding the spatial distribution of strontium isotopes in plants or other archives within a region is crucial for various fields, including archaeology, environmental studies, food sciences and forensic science. This study aims to create a detailed dynamic strontium isoscape for Belgium through high-density plant sampling, presented in a web application (IsoBel) that serves the mentioned research fields. A total of 540 plant samples (199 locations), representing various species of grass, shrubs, and trees across Belgium were collected and were analysed for their strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) to create a first biologically available strontium map. Sampling sites were selected to cover diverse lithological formations and soil types, ensuring representative coverage of the region's geological heterogeneity, by using a novel high density grid mapping method. Sixty-four previously published plants from 21 locations are also included in this study, bringing the total amount of plant samples used to 604 from 220 locations. The results reveal significant variations in 87Sr/86Sr across Belgium (ranging from 0.7054 to 0.7259), which reflect the underlying lithology and geological processes (tectonics, weathering, …) which shaped the landscape. Although overlapping 87Sr/86Sr is seen across the majority of lithologies, there is a statistically significant difference between the distribution of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values across all different lithological units in Belgium (Kruskal-Wallis test; p < 0.0001). Distinct regional patterns were observed, with higher 87Sr/86Sr in the older geological southeastern part of Belgium, compared to the younger northwestern parts. The high-density plant sampling approach employed in this study allowed for enhanced spatial resolution and improved accuracy in the predictive surfaces for bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr created by Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK). These findings provide valuable insights into the geographic distribution of strontium isotopes within Belgium and offer a foundation for future studies in archaeology, ecology, environmental studies, food sciences and forensics. Furthermore, the extensive coverage of various plant species provided a robust representation of the local ecosystems and their strontium sources. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on regional strontium isoscapes, enhancing our understanding of the complex interplay between litho-and biosphere in shaping the strontium isotope compositions of ecosystems.
... Several repositories have emerged to promote isotopic data sharing and centralization, such as IsoMemo (archaeology, ecology, and environmental & life sciences, isomemo.com), IsoArcH (archaeology; [5,6]), Iso2k (hydrology and climatology; [7,8]), and the Waterisotopes Database (wiDB; hydrology; [9, 10]). Isotopic data from some fields have been integrated into databases elsewhere with broad proxy data types, such as the Faunal Isotopes within the Neotoma Paleoecology Database [11,12] or narrowly focused on a particular isotope for example SrIsoMed [13,14] and iRHUM [15,16]. ...
Stable isotope data have made pivotal contributions to nearly every discipline of the physical and natural sciences. As the generation and application of stable isotope data continues to grow exponentially, so does the need for a unifying data repository to improve accessibility and promote collaborative engagement. This paper provides an overview of the design, development, and implementation of IsoBank (www.isobank.org), a community-driven initiative to create an open-access repository for stable isotope data implemented online in 2021. A central goal of IsoBank is to provide a web-accessible database supporting interdisciplinary stable isotope research and educational opportunities. To achieve this goal, we convened a multi-disciplinary group of over 40 analytical experts, stable isotope researchers, database managers, and web developers to collaboratively design the database. This paper outlines the main features of IsoBank and provides a focused description of the core metadata structure. We present plans for future database and tool development and engagement across the scientific community. These efforts will help facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among the many users of stable isotopic data while also offering useful data resources and standardization of metadata reporting across eco-geoinformatics landscapes.
... In terms of current data practices, the IsoArcH initiative, established in 2011, is dedicated to promoting fairness and openness in isotope bioarchaeology data practices (Plomp et al. 2022). Central to this initiative is the IsoArcH database, a comprehensive repository of isotopic data from diverse archaeological periods and regions. ...
... Kansa & Kansa 2013: 89;Wright 2020;Richards et al. 2021;. The high rates of specialists interacting with external data and analysing publically available datasets demonstrate extensive reuse already occurs in bioarchaeology, aligning with the field's interdisciplinary nature (Plomp et al. 2022). Furthermore, it argues for the need to make data as open to reuse as possible. ...
... Limited data access highlights the academic exclusivity of researchers at universities in the United States, Canada, and Europe 36,37 . The recent availability of multiple large biogeochemical datasets from around the globe demonstrates that isotopic analysis is a powerful tool for understanding aspects of past human lifeways including diet, nutrition, and population movement [38][39][40][41] . ...
The Caribbean & Mesoamerica Biogeochemical Isotope Overview (CAMBIO) is an archaeological data community designed to integrate published biogeochemical data from the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, and southern Central America to address questions about dynamic interactions among humans, animals, and the environment in the region over the past 10,000 years. Here we present the CAMBIO human dataset, which consists of more than 16,000 isotopic measurements from human skeletal tissue samples (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S, δ¹⁸O, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, 206/204Pb, 207/204Pb, 208/204Pb, 207/206Pb) from 290 archaeological sites dating between 7000 BC to modern times. The open-access dataset also includes detailed chronological, contextual, and laboratory/sample preparation information for each measurement. The collated data are deposited on the open-access CAMBIO data community via the Pandora Initiative data platform (https://pandoradata.earth/organization/cambio).
... Además, se prevén contribuciones significativas a tipos de datos en el Portal ARIADNE, como datos de isótopos 474 DOI: http://doi.org/10.31048/1852.4826.v16.n2.42862 ISSN 1852-060X (impreso) / ISSN 1852-4826 (electrónico) bioarqueológicos de la base de datos IsoArcH (Plomp et al., 2022). ...
El objetivo general de la iniciativa ARIADNE es ayudar a las comunidades de investigación y gestión de datos arqueológicos en Europa y más allá, compartir y utilizar de manera más efectiva los datos dispersos en muchas instituciones y proyectos. La iniciativa desarrolló servicios de Infraestructura de Investigación que permiten la agregación, integración, búsqueda y visualización de registros de datos que describen y enlazan a colecciones de datos y elementos disponibles en los repositorios y bases de datos de los proveedores. Financiado bajo la rama de Infraestructuras de Investigación del Programa Marco de Investigación e Innovación de la Unión Europea, los proyectos ARIADNE implementaron y mejoraron la Infraestructura de Investigación ARIADNE y movilizaron una creciente comunidad de instituciones y proyectos colaborativos interesados en compartir datos a través de la e-Infraestructura. En el proyecto ARIADNEplus, se integraron casi 4 millones de registros de datos en el Portal ARIADNE. Después de una breve introducción a la iniciativa ARIADNE, este documento presenta algunos logros seleccionados de la iniciativa con el proyecto ARIADNEplus. Aborda la extensión y el apoyo de la comunidad ARIADNE, las actividades que promueven datos FAIR en arqueología y la estandarización de conjuntos de datos basados en el CIDOC CRM y los vocabularios de dominio Getty AAT y PeriodO. Considera el Portal ARIADNE como una herramienta efectiva de acceso a datos e investigación, y el desarrollo de Entornos Virtuales de Investigación como un nuevo enfoque innovador. Las observaciones finales destacan que la iniciativa ARIADNE proporciona incentivos para que las instituciones y proyectos compartan sus datos y los hagan útiles a través del Portal ARIADNE, lo que potencia el valor de los repositorios y bases de datos de los proveedores. Además, se señalan las formas en que ARIADNE ha fomentado una labor interdisciplinaria fecunda, por ejemplo, entre académicos y desarrolladores tecnológicos de servicios de investigación.
... Therefore, these individuals were included and analyzed as acceptable entries throughout this manuscript. The compiled datasets are available at the IsoArcH repository Plomp et al., 2022) with the digital object identifiers 10.48530/isoarch. 2021.006 ...
The development of the modern industrialized food production system has resulted in a homogeneous human diet worldwide. However, it is not clear whether a developed food production system led to a homogenized human diet also in ancient societies. Due to the lack of large archaeological datasets, we know little about the chronological trends and ancient circumstances of dietary homogenization. Here we compiled carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios, indicators of palaeodiet, of adult human skeletons from premodern mainland Japan (AD 1603–1868, n = 318) to investigate chronological changes in diet. Comparison with datasets from Japan in modern, premodern (Edo), and foraging (Jomon) periods showed that the human diet was rapidly homogenized isotopically in modern times. Premodern people in Japan typically obtained dietary proteins from C3 crops and fish, and the establishment of agriculture created a new isotope dietary niche compared with the foraging period. Dominant protein contributions from agricultural C3 crops cultivated with organic fertilizers and/or rice that are grown in paddy fields with denitrification increased premodern human nitrogen isotope ratios without increasing their carbon isotope ratios. Diet differed according to the social status of individuals or the availability of foods, and a unique diet can be seen in people in higher social classes such as the Shogun family. Meta-analysis of stable isotope ratios of archaeological human skeletons enables a comprehensive understanding of human dietary change through time and regional variations.
... This highlights the need to contrast dietary and mobility information to fully interpret strontium isotope results (Dalle et al. 2022;2023a). The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and [Sr] data from the CRUMBEL project (see Snoeck et al. 2021;2022, and references therein;Dalle et al. 2023b) are openly shared in the IsoArcH database (Salesse et al. 2018;Plomp et al. 2022), providing accessible and unrestricted access to the information. ...
