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SAROI Fellow Josh Robinson on spatial statistics and stable isotope analysis in archaeology

Stable isotopic analysis is typically used in archaeology to describe past movement and/or the diet of people and animals. Much of these research results are left at the descriptive level, while their spatial component–their isotopic space–not fully explored, despite such research being fundamentally rooted in various places. One of our 2021-2022 SAROI Fellows, Josh Robinson, recently reviewed the use of spatial statistics for stable isotope analysis, and the user-friendly rKIN package, in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-021-09541-7. Josh also recently explored spatial and temporal trends in Late Pleistocene Eastern Africa using stable isotopes, to understand the mechanisms through which human populations exchanged genes, ideas, and behaviors, in the journal Historical Biology: https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2021.1942465. We look forward to seeing what’s next from Josh with respect to spatial modeling!