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Preface: Proceedings of the 3rd Radiocarbon and Diet Conference

Year: 2025

Type: editorial

Abstract: The first Radiocarbon and Diet conferences were held in 2014 (Kiel) and 2017 (Aarhus).They aimed to foster interdisciplinary connections, between those working within radiocarbon facilities and those within the stable isotope community across archaeological, geoscience and ecological fields.These conferences focused on radiocarbon reservoir effects which can introduce errors in radiocarbon-based chronologies.However, these effects also offer valuable insights into the consumption of freshwater and marine resources, which may be difficult to detect using traditional archaeological and stable isotope methods.Over the past decade, there have been significant advancements in methodologies that enhance our understanding of past diets, broadening the scope of this conference.The analysis of stable isotopes in single amino acids has enabled more precise identification of aquatic resources, improving our ability to predict and understand reservoir effects.Additionally, lipid analysis within ceramic matrices now allows us to identify, and even directly radiocarbon date, dietary resources that were previously overlooked in the archaeological record.With researchers active in dietary analysis and radiocarbon fields, the School of Archaeology in the University of Oxford bid to host the 3rd conference.The conference was scheduled for 2020, and we thank Thomas Higham and a local organising committee for investing a substantial amount of effort to organise a conference that was cancelled because of the COVID pandemic.The 3rd Radiocarbon and Diet conference was held 20th-23rd June 2023.82 participants attended from 22 countries, with 32 oral and 10 poster presentations.Eight papers are included in this conference proceedings.We aimed to reduce our carbon footprint in this conference by providing vegetarian food during the day and avoiding printed material and conference goodie bags.The conference was also held in a hybrid format enabling widely dispersed participants to attend, and we are particularly thankful for the patience of the online participants with microphone teething problems and the inevitable time zone discrepancies.Emmanuel Casanova opened the conference with a plenary presentation which provided an update on the radiocarbon dating of lipid residues in archaeological ceramics.Two invited presentations explored key connections between radiocarbon and diet.Klervia Jaouen spoke on Assessing freshwater and marine fish consumption around prehistoric populations using CSIA-AA and Zn Isotope Ratios, and Bente Philippsen spoke on The freshwater reservoir effect, a tool to reconstruct diet and environment.Fiona Petchey explored the temporal variability in the marine reservoir effect and how this

Source: Radiocarbon

DOI: 10.1017/rdc.2025.10139