stantis/IsoArchEAA: Repurposing Open Access Isotopic Data in Ancient Egypt and Western Asia

Isotopic analyses of human remains and other materials from archaeological contexts provide opportunities to investigate broad themes of diet, migration, and climate. When combined with other archaeological information, stable isotope data can provide further insights into a wide array of anthropological and environmental issues such as weaning practices, disease processes and physiological stress, social stratification, animal husbandry practices, and climatic conditions. There are, however, current limitations of this method in the broad study region of Egypt and the Near East, most especially limitations surrounding a dearth of comparative and baseline data.

By utilizing the IsoArcH database (https://isoarch.eu/database/), part of an initiative to advocate data sharing for bioarchaeological isotope researchers, we investigate the current isotope data available within the online repository.In addition, this compilation effort will benefit the entire archaeological community working in Ancient Egypt and the Near East by making isotopic data easily accessible online, available to anyone free of charge and available for re-use without restriction, except that attribution be given to the source.

With 83 previous research outputs (totaling 2880 human samples and 1485 animal and plant samples) we find a wide range of isotopic data, from 6000 BCE to modern baseline samples. Although the long dureè and broad region smooths out local information and creates interpretation issues regarding differences in physical and social environments, we show where past research has focused and highlight data gaps that can be addressed by future research.