A stable relationship: Isotopes and bioarchaeology are in it for the long haul

Britton, Kate

doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.98

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A stable relationship: Isotopes and bioarchaeology are in it for the long haul

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Britton, Kate
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Britton, K. (2017). A stable relationship: Isotopes and bioarchaeology are in it for the long haul. Antiquity, 91(358), 853-864. doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.98.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-E02C-F

Abstract

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 to work, Soddy described the then nameless concept of elements of different masses that occupy the same place in the periodic table. Todd suggested the term isotope', from the Greek isos (same') + topos (place'), and the name stuck (Nicol 1957; Nagel 1982).