Dear colleagues,
Abstract submission and registration for the 2015 INQUA conference "Quaternary Perspectives on Climate Change, Natural Hazards and Civilization" in Nagoya, Japan will open shortly at http://inqua2015.jp/ and remain open until 20 December. Please see the session announcement below and direct any questions or statements of interest to me at [email protected]. With best wishes, Suzanne *** *The Isotope Ecology of Migration: Reconstructing mammalian ethology and its implications for prehistoric human mobility and decision-making* Lead convener: Suzanne Pilaar Birch, University of Georgia, [email protected] Relevant INQUA Commission: HaBCOM Throughout prehistory, the seasonal density, distribution, and movement of animals would have influenced forager decisions regarding what to eat, where to live, how long to stay there, and when to move. The behavior of migratory species, including large-bodied herbivores moving in herds, likely played a significant role in human mobility strategies. Projecting modern herbivore ethology into the past is problematic for both extant and extinct species, but stable isotope analysis has emerged as a valuable tool for detecting evidence of migration and seasonal movement. In particular, analysis of oxygen, carbon, and strontium of ancient mammal teeth and bone has the ability to generate robust datasets that can be used to reconstruct migratory behavior, integral to archaeological interpretations of human-animal-environment interactions. Proxy datasets created by the analysis of modern herbivore populations are critical for assessing the relationships between the isotopic signals recorded by teeth in different environments and variables such as temperature, precipitation, moisture availability, and animal diet and physiology. To that end, this session invites papers dealing with datasets from both modern and ancient mammal populations that seek to advance or critique current methods for detecting and reconstructing migratory behavior of herds and individuals using stable isotope analysis as well as papers that integrate these analyses with other types of neo- and paleoecological data. *** -- Dr. Suzanne E. Pilaar Birch Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology Department of Geography University of Georgia Athens, GA, 30602 USA Website: uga.academia.edu/SuzannePilaarBirch Twitter: @suzie_birch
