The use of dietary isotopes as a preliminary step in the death investigation of unidentified skeletal human remains in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

In British Columbia, Canada, unidentified skeletal human remains are often recovered by law enforcement or civilians and there is a question if they are modern and of medicolegal significance, or historical or archaeological. We used relatively fast and inexpensive carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen from a selection of these remains (n = 48) combined with a logistic regression model to classify remains as modern, historical, or archaeological. We then confirmed our temporal classification through directly radiocarbon dating each individual and found that we could predict the temporal group with 93% accuracy. In regions where archaeological remains have dietary isotope values distinct from living people, dietary stable isotope analysis can provide a time-, and resource-efficient method to screen cases of unidentified human remains early in death investigation.