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1 results

  • Zinc as a Paleodietary Indicator: An Issue of Theoretical Validity in Bone-Chemistry Analysis

  • Joseph A. Ezzo
  • Journal:
    American Antiquity / Volume 59 / Issue 4 / October 1994
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    20 January 2017, pp. 606-621
    Print publication:
    October 1994

  • The use of the concentrations of zinc in archaeological bone as an indicator of past diets and/or health conditions has become widely accepted in bone-chemistry analysis, despite the fact that the theoretical validity for such an application has not been established. In this paper I present a series of critical variables—such as elemental metabolism, bone physiology, the relationship between dietary intakes of an element and its concentration in bone, trophic-level separation in the foodweb, and diagenetic variability—that must be addressed in the process of theoretical validation. I also discuss how studies that support the use of zinc as paleodietary indicator have generally focused on only one or perhaps two of these criteria. Until a sound model based on physiological principles is developed, the use of zinc as a paleodietary indicator remains unproven.