Strontium and paleodietary research: A review

The measurement of skeletal strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) ratios can provide information on the proportion of meat and vegetable foods in the diets of prehistoric peoples. This information is based in the well-documented reduction of Sr/Ca ratios in terrestrial food chains. The reduction, and therefore the paleodietary technique, is complicated by (a) differences in Sr/Ca ratios entering food chains, and (b) metabolic considerations such as age, pregnancy, etc. Changes in Sr/Ca ratios during interment may also obscure biological Sr/Ca levels. The theoretical basis of the technique, its complications, and practical use by anthropologists are reviewed, in an attempt to define the quality of information currently and potentially available from Sr/Ca analyses.