Advanced Seminar on Paleodietary Research

西伦博士将主持一个为期两周的会议，将聚集大约20名体质人类学和相关领域的专家，讨论化学技术在史前人类饮食重建中的应用。该小组将特别关注对人类骨骼遗骸的分析。过去的研究表明，不同的食物在碳和氮的同位素组成以及锶等微量矿物质方面各不相同。这些差异通常反映在它们的消费者的骨骼组成上，通过对骨骼残骸的分析，有可能对饮食有一些了解。然而，用于实现这一目标的技术套件仍在开发中，本次会议将审查具体问题并提出解决这些问题的方法。特别是，参与者将关注食物本身的变化，分析方法，成岩作用问题（随时间变化的骨骼成分）和特定考古遗址的分析。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加我们对自己过去的了解，并有助于建立一个衡量现代人类饮食的基线。

Dr. Sillen will chair a two week conference which will bring together approximately 20 experts in physical anthropology and allied fields to discuss the application of chemical techniques to the reconstruction of prehistoric human diet. In particular the group will focus on the analysis of human skeletal remains. Past research has shown that different foodstuffs vary in their isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen as well as such trace minerals as strontium. These differences are often reflected in the bone composition of their consumers and through analysis of skeletal remains it is possible to gain some insight into diet. However the suite of techniques used to accomplish this are still under development and this conference will examine specific problems and suggest ways around them. In particular the participants will focus on variation in the foods themselves, methods of analysis, the problem of diagenesis (change in bone composition over time) and the analysis of specific archaeological sites. The research is important because it will increase our understanding of our own past and help to establish a baseline against which modern human diets can be measured.