K Britton
Biographic Data
| ID | 97174 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Britton |
| GIVEN NAMES | K |
| FAMILY NAME | Britton |
| SIGNATURE | BRITTON K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Aberdeen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9478-5966 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 471 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Giving and taking
The ethics of destructive sampling of human remains has become a critical debate, in part centred on developing minimally invasive techniques that simultaneously maximize information yield. While widely adopted best-practice guidelines have been developed, the proliferation of diverse analytical techniques results in incremental damage that compounds across studies, necessitating coordinated protocols to minimize cumulative destructive impact. He…
High‐resolution compound‐specific δ 15 N isotope dietary study of humans from the Scottish Mesolithic and Neolithic
Numerous isotopic studies of Scottish Mesolithic and Neolithic diets suggest a shift from marine‐based to terrestrial‐based subsistence strategies. However, bulk collagen isotope analysis may overlook low‐level marine food consumption. This study combines bulk collagen stable isotope data from four Neolithic sites (Quanterness, Rattar East, Ness of Brodgar, and Knap of Howar) with nitrogen compound‐specific isotope analysis (CSIA‐AA) from one Lat…
Multi-isotope analysis of mammalian fauna from the Middle Pleistocene (MIS6) Lazaret Cave
International audience
Dual role of human activities and climate in pre-industrial nitrogen shifts in Ireland
Late Pleistocene Neanderthal exploitation of stable and mosaic ecosystems in northern Iberia shown by multi-isotope evidence
During the last glacial period, rapidly changing environments posed substantial challenges to Neanderthal populations in Europe. Southern continental regions, such as Iberia, have been proposed as important climatic “buffer” zones during glacial phases. Contextualising the climatic and ecological conditions Neanderthals faced is relevant to interpreting their resilience. However, records of the environments and ecosystems they exploited across Ib…
New zooarchaeological evidence from Pictish sites in Scotland
Our knowledge of the use of livestock in early medieval Scotland is fragmentary and relies on a handful of well-studied faunal assemblages, with few from Pictland (north-east Scotland), an important and enigmatic group and latterly kingdom in Northern Britain that existed between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD. The assemblages that have been recovered and studied mainly occur at the limits of this territory, beyond the heartland of the Picts in the…
Ecological evolution in northern Iberia (SW Europe) during the Late Pleistocene through isotopic analysis on ungulate teeth
During the Late Pleistocene, stadial and interstadial fluctuations affected vegetation, fauna, and human groups that were forced to cope with these pronounced climatic and environmental changes in time and space. These changes were especially abrupt during the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 3. However, little is still known about the local and regional climatic conditions experienced by hominins in Europe. Here we reconstruct the climatic trends in …
Multi-isotope zooarchaeological investigations at Abri du Maras
The exploitation of mid- and large-sized herbivores (ungulates) was central to hominin subsistence across Late Pleistocene Europe. Reconstructing the paleoecology of prey-taxa is key to better understanding procurement strategies, decisions and behaviors, and the isotope analysis of faunal bones and teeth found at archaeological sites represent a powerful means of accessing information about past faunal behaviors. These isotope zooarchaeological …
Caroline Rosa Wickham-Jones, MA MSocSci FSA HonFSAScot MCIfA
Caroline was a prolific, dedicated and accomplished academic of Scotland’s prehistory with an exemplary publication record
The Bodies in the 'Bog
This study utilises multi-isotope approaches to investigate early medieval diet and childhood origins of individuals interred in an unusual group burial from Lothian, Scotland. In 1976, the skeletal remains of nine adults and five infants were unearthed from the infill of a latrine of a bathhouse at the Roman fort at Cramond, Edinburgh. Originally thought to be later medieval (14th/15thcentury), but recently dated to the 6thcentury AD, these rema…
Pre-contact adaptations to the Little Ice Age in Southwest Alaska
The reconstruction of diet, subsistence strategies and human-animal relationships are integral to understanding past human societies, adaptations and resilience - especially in the circumpolar Arctic. Even in relatively recent periods, climatic excursions may have posed specific challenges for hunter-gatherer groups living at latitudinal and climatic extremes, and archaeological research in Arctic North America is increasingly looking to better u…
What's the catch? Archaeological application of rapid collagen-based species identification for Pacific Salmon
Activity Areas or Conflict Episode? Interpreting the Spatial Patterning of Lice and Fleas at the Precontact Yup'ik Site of Nunalleq (Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries AD, Alaska)
Archaeoentomological research at the precontact site of Nunalleq (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD), Southwest Alaska, has identified hundreds of lice and fleas that infested both the human inhabitants of the site and their canine companions. As lice are host specific, staying attached to the host's hair or fur during the totality of their lifecycle, they are generally considered excellent indicators of activity areas. Fleas, however, are r…
Archaeologies of Climate Change
Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity today, and discussions of its effects-from habitat loss to psychological impacts-can be found in most academic disciplines. Among the many casualties of contemporary climatic change is the archaeological heritage of Arctic and subarctic regions, as warming, erratic weather patterns, coastal erosion, and melting permafrost threaten the anthropogenic and ecological records found in northern en…
Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology
Multi-scale, integrated approaches to understanding the nature and impact of past environmental and climatic change in the archaeological record, and the role of isotope zooarchaeology
New Isotope Evidence for Diachronic and Site-Spatial Variation in Precontact Diet during the Little Ice Age at Nunalleq, Southwest Alaska
The stable isotope analysis of preserved proteinaceous tissues, such as bone collagen and hair keratin, offers a powerful means of examining individual dietary practices in archaeology and, through this, inferring the subsistence behaviours, socio-cultural practices, and food preferences of past populations. Previous isotope research at the precontact Yup’ik village site of Nunalleq, Alaska, has provided evidence of a mixed diet of marine and ter…
Neanderthal selective hunting of reindeer? The case study of Abri du Maras (south-eastern France)
Isotopes and new norms
In this study, we aim to extend the chronological, geographical, and societal scope of previous bioarchaeological research on infant diet and age at weaning in Britain in the past through the analysis of the large medieval and post‐medieval skeletal assemblage from St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen, Scotland. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data were obtained from rib collagen from 67 sub‐adults across the two phases and were compared with mean adul…
Potential dietary, non-metabolic accumulation of arsenic (As) in seaweed-eating sheep's teeth
Integrating isotopes and documentary evidence
This study explores the relationship between dietary patterns and social structure in a pre-industrial mining community in Salberget, Sweden c. 1470 to 1600A.D. using a combination of different research approaches and tools, including archaeology, osteology, bone chemistry and history. The correlation between demographic criteria (sex and age) and archaeological variables (burial type and burial location) shows that Salberget was a highly stratif…
Three Generations Under One Roof? Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Data From Nunalleq, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
This article presents the results of a program of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modeling from the precontact Yup'ik site of Nunalleq (GDN-248) in subarctic southwestern Alaska. Nunalleq is deeply stratified, presenting a robust relative chronological framework of well-defined individual house floors abundant in ecofacts suitable for radiocarbon dating. Capitalizing on this potential, we present the results of one of the first applications of Ba…
Reconstructing caribou seasonal biogeography in Little Ice Age (late Holocene) Western Alaska using intra-tooth strontium and oxygen isotope analysis
The palaeobiogeography of key prey-species can provide valuable insights into animal-human interactions, human subsistence activities and landscape use in the past. In many contemporary indigenous Arctic societies, caribou (Rangifer tarandus spp.) are an important seasonal subsistence species, and recent climatic shifts have influenced the seasonal and spatial distribution and migrations of herds. The impact of larger scale climatic change on thi…
Reconstructing diet at the Neolithic stalled cairn of the Knowe of Rowiegar, Rousay, Orkney, using stable isotope analysis
A landmark-based approach for assessing the reliability of mandibular tooth crowding as a marker of dog domestication
Tooth crowding is one of several criteria used to infer the process of domestication in the zooarchaeological record. It has been primarily used to support claims of early animal domestication, perhaps most contentiously in claims for the existence of so-called “proto-domestic” dogs as early as the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic. Tooth crowding studies vary in their methodological approaches, and interpretation of the resulting data is constrained by …
Stable isotope evidence for salt-marsh grazing in the Bronze Age Severn Estuary, UK
Strontium isotope evidence for migration in late Pleistocene Rangifer
Reconstructing faunal migrations using intra-tooth sampling and strontium and oxygen isotope analyses
Neanderthal selective hunting of reindeer? The case study of Abri du Maras (south-eastern France)
Inferring animal husbandry strategies in coastal zones through stable isotope analysis
Oxygen isotope analysis of human bone phosphate evidences weaning age in archaeological populations
Here we report bone phosphate oxygen (δ 18 O p ) values from perinates/neonates and infants ( n = 32); children (4–12 years; n = 12); unsexed juveniles (16–18 years; n = 2); and adult bones ( n = 17) from Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, England, in order to explore the potential of this method to investigate patterns of past breastfeeding and weaning. In prior studies, δ 15 N and δ 13 C analyses of bone collagen have been utilized to explore wean…
Isotopes and new norms
In this study, we aim to extend the chronological, geographical, and societal scope of previous bioarchaeological research on infant diet and age at weaning in Britain in the past through the analysis of the large medieval and post‐medieval skeletal assemblage from St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen, Scotland. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data were obtained from rib collagen from 67 sub‐adults across the two phases and were compared with mean adul…
Maritime adaptations and dietary variation in prehistoric Western Alaska
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral in understanding early human colonizations and cultural adaptations, especially in the Arctic—one of the last areas of North America to be permanently inhabited. However, evidence for early subsistence practices in Western Alaska varies, particularly with regards to the emergence, importance, and intensity of sea mammal hunting. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope d…
Preliminary archaeoentomological analyses of permafrost-preserved cultural layers from the pre-contact Yup'ik Eskimo site of Nunalleq, Alaska
Three Generations Under One Roof? Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Data From Nunalleq, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
This article presents the results of a program of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modeling from the precontact Yup'ik site of Nunalleq (GDN-248) in subarctic southwestern Alaska. Nunalleq is deeply stratified, presenting a robust relative chronological framework of well-defined individual house floors abundant in ecofacts suitable for radiocarbon dating. Capitalizing on this potential, we present the results of one of the first applications of Ba…
A landmark-based approach for assessing the reliability of mandibular tooth crowding as a marker of dog domestication
Tooth crowding is one of several criteria used to infer the process of domestication in the zooarchaeological record. It has been primarily used to support claims of early animal domestication, perhaps most contentiously in claims for the existence of so-called “proto-domestic” dogs as early as the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic. Tooth crowding studies vary in their methodological approaches, and interpretation of the resulting data is constrained by …
Dog-human dietary relationships in Yup'ik western Alaska
Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of permafrost preserved human hair from rescue excavations (2009, 2010) at the precontact site of Nunalleq, Alaska
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral to understanding hunter-gatherer societies in the past, and is particularly of interest in high latitude environments as they can illuminate human-environmental interactions and adaptations. Until recently, very little archaeological research had been undertaken on the Bering Sea coasts of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and relatively little is known about precontact lifeways in this r…
A stable relationship
Given their ubiquity in dietary reconstruction, it is fitting that the story of isotopes began with a conversation over dinner. Although coined in scientific literature by Frederick Soddy (1913), the word 'isotope' was first conceived by Margaret Todd, a medical doctor (also known as the novelist 'Graham Travers', and an all-round gender-stereotype-smasher of their age). In 1912, Soddy and Todd were attending a supper in Glasgow. When talk turned…
New evidence for the consumption of barley at Romano-British military and civilian sites, from the analysis of cereal bran fragments in faecal material
What's the catch? Archaeological application of rapid collagen-based species identification for Pacific Salmon
Season of birth and sheep husbandry in late Roman and Medieval coastal Flanders
From the early Roman period, there is archaeological evidence for the exploitation of the Flemish coastal plain (Belgium) for a range of activities, such as sheep herding on the then developing salt-marshes and salt-meadows for the production of wool. During the early Middle Ages, this culminated in the establishment of dedicated ‘sheep estates’. This phase of exploitation was followed by extensive drainage and land reclamation measures in the hi…
Specialized Processing of Aquatic Resources in Prehistoric Alaskan Pottery? A Lipid-Residue Analysis of Ceramic Sherds from the Thule-Period Site of Nunalleq, Alaska
Largely missing from the debate surrounding the use of pottery among arctic and subarctic hunter-gatherers are site-based biomolecular studies of vessel contents. This study used lipid-residue analysis to elucidate vessel function at Nunalleq (GDN-248), a late Thule-period coastal village site in the Yup’ik area of Western Alaska. In total, 31 pottery sherds and five soil samples were analyzed using gas chromatography and/or gas chromatography–ma…
Archaeologies of Climate Change
Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity today, and discussions of its effects-from habitat loss to psychological impacts-can be found in most academic disciplines. Among the many casualties of contemporary climatic change is the archaeological heritage of Arctic and subarctic regions, as warming, erratic weather patterns, coastal erosion, and melting permafrost threaten the anthropogenic and ecological records found in northern en…
Multi-scale, integrated approaches to understanding the nature and impact of past environmental and climatic change in the archaeological record, and the role of isotope zooarchaeology
Integrating isotopes and documentary evidence
This study explores the relationship between dietary patterns and social structure in a pre-industrial mining community in Salberget, Sweden c. 1470 to 1600A.D. using a combination of different research approaches and tools, including archaeology, osteology, bone chemistry and history. The correlation between demographic criteria (sex and age) and archaeological variables (burial type and burial location) shows that Salberget was a highly stratif…
Multi-isotope zooarchaeological investigations at Abri du Maras
The exploitation of mid- and large-sized herbivores (ungulates) was central to hominin subsistence across Late Pleistocene Europe. Reconstructing the paleoecology of prey-taxa is key to better understanding procurement strategies, decisions and behaviors, and the isotope analysis of faunal bones and teeth found at archaeological sites represent a powerful means of accessing information about past faunal behaviors. These isotope zooarchaeological …
Reconstructing caribou seasonal biogeography in Little Ice Age (late Holocene) Western Alaska using intra-tooth strontium and oxygen isotope analysis
The palaeobiogeography of key prey-species can provide valuable insights into animal-human interactions, human subsistence activities and landscape use in the past. In many contemporary indigenous Arctic societies, caribou (Rangifer tarandus spp.) are an important seasonal subsistence species, and recent climatic shifts have influenced the seasonal and spatial distribution and migrations of herds. The impact of larger scale climatic change on thi…
Reconstructing diet at the Neolithic stalled cairn of the Knowe of Rowiegar, Rousay, Orkney, using stable isotope analysis
High‐resolution compound‐specific δ 15 N isotope dietary study of humans from the Scottish Mesolithic and Neolithic
Numerous isotopic studies of Scottish Mesolithic and Neolithic diets suggest a shift from marine‐based to terrestrial‐based subsistence strategies. However, bulk collagen isotope analysis may overlook low‐level marine food consumption. This study combines bulk collagen stable isotope data from four Neolithic sites (Quanterness, Rattar East, Ness of Brodgar, and Knap of Howar) with nitrogen compound‐specific isotope analysis (CSIA‐AA) from one Lat…
Stable isotope evidence for salt-marsh grazing in the Bronze Age Severn Estuary, UK
Reconstructing faunal migrations using intra-tooth sampling and strontium and oxygen isotope analyses
New evidence for the consumption of barley at Romano-British military and civilian sites, from the analysis of cereal bran fragments in faecal material
Strontium isotope evidence for migration in late Pleistocene Rangifer
Inferring animal husbandry strategies in coastal zones through stable isotope analysis
Maritime adaptations and dietary variation in prehistoric Western Alaska
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral in understanding early human colonizations and cultural adaptations, especially in the Arctic—one of the last areas of North America to be permanently inhabited. However, evidence for early subsistence practices in Western Alaska varies, particularly with regards to the emergence, importance, and intensity of sea mammal hunting. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope d…
The genetic prehistory of the New World Arctic
Arctic genetics comes in from the cold Despite a well-characterized archaeological record, the genetics of the people who inhabit the Arctic have been unexplored. Raghavan et al. sequenced ancient and modern genomes of individuals from the North American Arctic (see the Perspective by Park). Analyses of these genomes indicate that the Arctic was colonized 6000 years ago by a migration separate from the one that gave rise to other Native American …
Preliminary archaeoentomological analyses of permafrost-preserved cultural layers from the pre-contact Yup'ik Eskimo site of Nunalleq, Alaska
Specialized Processing of Aquatic Resources in Prehistoric Alaskan Pottery? A Lipid-Residue Analysis of Ceramic Sherds from the Thule-Period Site of Nunalleq, Alaska
Largely missing from the debate surrounding the use of pottery among arctic and subarctic hunter-gatherers are site-based biomolecular studies of vessel contents. This study used lipid-residue analysis to elucidate vessel function at Nunalleq (GDN-248), a late Thule-period coastal village site in the Yup’ik area of Western Alaska. In total, 31 pottery sherds and five soil samples were analyzed using gas chromatography and/or gas chromatography–ma…
International variation in phytosanitary legislation and regulations governing importation of plants for planting
Season of birth and sheep husbandry in late Roman and Medieval coastal Flanders
From the early Roman period, there is archaeological evidence for the exploitation of the Flemish coastal plain (Belgium) for a range of activities, such as sheep herding on the then developing salt-marshes and salt-meadows for the production of wool. During the early Middle Ages, this culminated in the establishment of dedicated ‘sheep estates’. This phase of exploitation was followed by extensive drainage and land reclamation measures in the hi…
Oxygen isotope analysis of human bone phosphate evidences weaning age in archaeological populations
Here we report bone phosphate oxygen (δ 18 O p ) values from perinates/neonates and infants ( n = 32); children (4–12 years; n = 12); unsexed juveniles (16–18 years; n = 2); and adult bones ( n = 17) from Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, England, in order to explore the potential of this method to investigate patterns of past breastfeeding and weaning. In prior studies, δ 15 N and δ 13 C analyses of bone collagen have been utilized to explore wean…
Dog-human dietary relationships in Yup'ik western Alaska
Stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of permafrost preserved human hair from rescue excavations (2009, 2010) at the precontact site of Nunalleq, Alaska
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral to understanding hunter-gatherer societies in the past, and is particularly of interest in high latitude environments as they can illuminate human-environmental interactions and adaptations. Until recently, very little archaeological research had been undertaken on the Bering Sea coasts of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and relatively little is known about precontact lifeways in this r…
Reconstructing caribou seasonal biogeography in Little Ice Age (late Holocene) Western Alaska using intra-tooth strontium and oxygen isotope analysis
The palaeobiogeography of key prey-species can provide valuable insights into animal-human interactions, human subsistence activities and landscape use in the past. In many contemporary indigenous Arctic societies, caribou (Rangifer tarandus spp.) are an important seasonal subsistence species, and recent climatic shifts have influenced the seasonal and spatial distribution and migrations of herds. The impact of larger scale climatic change on thi…
Reconstructing diet at the Neolithic stalled cairn of the Knowe of Rowiegar, Rousay, Orkney, using stable isotope analysis
A landmark-based approach for assessing the reliability of mandibular tooth crowding as a marker of dog domestication
Tooth crowding is one of several criteria used to infer the process of domestication in the zooarchaeological record. It has been primarily used to support claims of early animal domestication, perhaps most contentiously in claims for the existence of so-called “proto-domestic” dogs as early as the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic. Tooth crowding studies vary in their methodological approaches, and interpretation of the resulting data is constrained by …
A stable relationship
Given their ubiquity in dietary reconstruction, it is fitting that the story of isotopes began with a conversation over dinner. Although coined in scientific literature by Frederick Soddy (1913), the word 'isotope' was first conceived by Margaret Todd, a medical doctor (also known as the novelist 'Graham Travers', and an all-round gender-stereotype-smasher of their age). In 1912, Soddy and Todd were attending a supper in Glasgow. When talk turned…
Isotopes and new norms
In this study, we aim to extend the chronological, geographical, and societal scope of previous bioarchaeological research on infant diet and age at weaning in Britain in the past through the analysis of the large medieval and post‐medieval skeletal assemblage from St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen, Scotland. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data were obtained from rib collagen from 67 sub‐adults across the two phases and were compared with mean adul…
Potential dietary, non-metabolic accumulation of arsenic (As) in seaweed-eating sheep's teeth
Integrating isotopes and documentary evidence
This study explores the relationship between dietary patterns and social structure in a pre-industrial mining community in Salberget, Sweden c. 1470 to 1600A.D. using a combination of different research approaches and tools, including archaeology, osteology, bone chemistry and history. The correlation between demographic criteria (sex and age) and archaeological variables (burial type and burial location) shows that Salberget was a highly stratif…
Three Generations Under One Roof? Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Data From Nunalleq, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
This article presents the results of a program of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modeling from the precontact Yup'ik site of Nunalleq (GDN-248) in subarctic southwestern Alaska. Nunalleq is deeply stratified, presenting a robust relative chronological framework of well-defined individual house floors abundant in ecofacts suitable for radiocarbon dating. Capitalizing on this potential, we present the results of one of the first applications of Ba…
Oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology
Multi-scale, integrated approaches to understanding the nature and impact of past environmental and climatic change in the archaeological record, and the role of isotope zooarchaeology
New Isotope Evidence for Diachronic and Site-Spatial Variation in Precontact Diet during the Little Ice Age at Nunalleq, Southwest Alaska
The stable isotope analysis of preserved proteinaceous tissues, such as bone collagen and hair keratin, offers a powerful means of examining individual dietary practices in archaeology and, through this, inferring the subsistence behaviours, socio-cultural practices, and food preferences of past populations. Previous isotope research at the precontact Yup’ik village site of Nunalleq, Alaska, has provided evidence of a mixed diet of marine and ter…
Geography (34 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (32 works) · Archaeology (30 works) · Biology (27 works) · Ecology (24 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (16 works) · Geology (12 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (12 works) · Isotope analysis (12 works) · Agriculture (11 works)