Diet, Status, and Complex Social Structure in Iron Age Central Europe: Some Contributions of Bone Chemistry

Abstract

These words by Grahame Clark introduced the second edition of a volume exploring the increasing role of interdisciplinary research on archaeological problems, particularly the evolution of complex forms of human behavior and organization. Since 1970, the applications of scientific methods in archaeology have continued to increase in number. In the past decade, methods based on bone composition, including carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in bone collagen and trace element concentrations in bone mineral, have been applied to aspects of diet, subsistence and social structure (work summarized in van der Merwe 1982; Klepinger 1984; Price et al. 1985; DeNiro 1987).