Paleodiet Laboratory
Director: Dr. Corina Kellner
Location: Rooms 108 and 109
Research in this wet laboratory focuses on ancient diet, migration, and stress in human and animal populations and how access to resources was partitioned in prehistory. Dr. Kellner’s bioarchaeological work in the Andes concentrates on how ancient states affected local societies, especially the Nasca and the Wari in southern Peru during the first millennium CE. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen left inside organic tissues by the food and water consumed tells us about ancient lifeways. The Paleodiet Lab uses bone, teeth, and hair from Andean archaeological contexts and students at the undergraduate and graduate levels can obtain hands-on training in isotopic processing for collagen and bioapatite.
The lab works with other scientists and facilities, including:
- In-house analysis done by the NAU Colorado Plateau Stable Isotope Laboratory in Wettaw Hall.
- Collaboration with Dr. C. Loren Buck, associate director of the NAU Center for Bioengineering Innovation, for hormonal analysis (cortisol and reproductive hormones).
- Collaboration with Dr. Frank Ramos at New Mexico State University for strontium isotopic analysis to determine migration patterns.