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Strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis of human skeletal remains is an important method in archaeology to examine past human mobility and landscape use. 87Sr/86Sr signatures of a given location are largely determined by the underlying bedrock, and these geology specific isotope signatures are incorporated into skeletal tissue through food and water, often permitting the differentiation of local and non-local individuals in past human populations. This study presents the results of a systematic survey of modern flora and fauna (n = 100) from 14 locations to map the bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr signatures of the Conchucos region, an area where the extent of geologic variability was previously unknown. We illustrate the necessity to examine the variation in 87Sr/86Sr values of the different geological formations available to human land use to document the range of possible local 87Sr/86Sr values. Within the Conchucos region we found significant variation in environmental 87Sr/86Sr values (0.7078–0.7214). The resulting isoscape represents the largest regionally specific bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr map (3,840 km2) to date for the Andes, and will serve as a baseline for future archaeological studies of human mobility in this part of the Peruvian highlands.

In the past two decades, paleogenetics has made a significant impact on the field of archaeology. Interestingly, paleogenetic methods have not been extensively employed in osteoarchaeology despite its ability to address issues that cannot be resolved through traditional osteological analysis alone. This paper tackles a problem concerning the relationship between human remains in a commingled deposit from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize. Paleogenetics demonstrates that the bones in question belonged to multiple individuals, thus resolving an issue that was at the heart of the interpretation of social processes at the site. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.