"How to Do a Good Job of Body Snatching": Historicizing Radiogenic and Stable Isotopic Studies.

To situate the contributions in this special issue, I historicize the isotopic study of ancient bodies. I begin with radiocarbon (14C) dating as developed by the physical chemist Willard Libby. Libby and team's successful efforts reverberated throughout the sciences but were experienced most profoundly in archaeology. For Libby, this scientific advance engendered symbolic capital, and he was appointed to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) General Advisory Committee in 1950. As a member of the AEC, he analyzed radioactive strontium (90Sr) to determine the effects of radioactive fallout. Decades later, declassified records indicate that aspects of this work, while not illegal, were decidedly unethical. I see the full scope of Libby's research, both its contribution and its opprobrium, as inceptive for bioarchaeologists' radiogenic and stable isotopic studies. But less historic trivia, my consideration is offered as a cautionary tale for the subfield--about methodological innovation, ontological transformations, and the bioethics of analyzing human remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]