1. Introduction
The archaeological record is composed of a diversity of materials, some of which enable us to reconstruct aspects of past human life. Among the more important of these materials are biological mineralized tissues, such as bones and teeth, as they contain information about the living animal, and the environment in which it lived.
Embedded in the bone and tooth minerals are isotopic and chemical signals that can provide information on paleoclimatology (Longinelli, 1984; Luz, Kolodny et al., 1984; Wang, Wang et al., 2008), migration of humans or other animals (Price, Grupe et al., 1994; Britton, Grimes et al., 2009), chronology (Hedges, LeeThorp et al., 1995; Milton, Kramer et al., 1997; Grün, 2001; Wild, Teschler-Nicola et al., 2005), paleoenvironment (Feranec and MacFadden 2000), paleodiet (Lee-Thorp, 2002) and chemical alteration post mortem (Wang and Cerling, 1994; Zazzo, Lecuyer et al., 2004; Dauphin, Montuelle et al., 2007; Roche, Segalen et al., 2010). All these ap...
