Anastasia was in Belgium in December, at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of KU Leuven University, to prepare more than 500 samples for carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen stable isotope analyses; the latter of which is still ongoing. Hydrogen stable isotope (δ2H) results can be used to reconstruct past diets (combined with δ13C and δ15N results) as well as mobility patterns.
The samples included: archaeological cats from Belgium, Austria and Serbia, other fauna (birds, fish, and terrestrial mammals) from Belgium (Brussels) and Jordan (Aqaba) as well as collagen samples from modern and archaeological (medieval, Denmark) cattle.
The pictures in the gallery show: the uniprep device for hydrogen stable isotope analysis, a view of the autosampler which is part of the uniprep device (from above and loaded with samples), Anastasia handling laboratory samples.
