Stanley H. Ambrose

Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
B.A., 1977, University of Massachusetts, Boston
M.A., 1981, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., 1984, University of California, Berkeley
Campus Address: 109 Davenport Hall
Email: ambrose@illinois.edu
Phone: 217-244-3504

Research Interests:

Diet, climate, environment and habitat reconstruction with stable carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotope ratios of human and other animal bones, teeth and soft tissues.

We use stable isotopes as a tool to evaluate the effects of dietary adaptations and climate change on the natural and cultural evolutionary history of humans from their origin to the present. Controlled diet experiments with rats were performed using diets synthesized from purified macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and lipids), with different stable carbon isotope ratios for proteins versus non-proteins. Consumer tissue protein carbon isotopic analysis shows that neosynthesis of non-essential amino acids is far less than expected from the standard model of essential versus non-essential amino acids, even on very low-protein diets. We plan to investigate this further by compound-specific isotopic analysis of amino acids. Our current research on prehistoric human diets includes the evolution of millet agriculture during the Neolithic in China, maize agriculture in eastern North America, animal husbandry and farming in eastern and southern Africa, and marine and terrestrial diets in Peru and Micronesia. Our Environmental Isotope Paleobiogeochemistry Laboratory is fully equipped for preparation of samples for stable isotope analysis. The Finnegan MAT 252 isotope ratio mass spectrometer provides accurate and precise analyses of sub-milligram sized samples. Automated preparation devices interfaced with this instrument include an elemental (CHN) analyzer for analysis of nitrogen and carbon isotopes of organic matter, a carbonate reaction/cryogenic distillation system for oxygen and carbon isotopes, and a gas chromatography/combustion/mass spectrometry system (GC/C/IRMS) for compound-specific carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids and fatty acids.

Representative Publications

Ambrose, S.H. (2000) Controlled diet and climate experiments on nitrogen isotope ratios of rat bone collagen, hair and muscle. In S.H. Ambrose and M.A. Katzenberg (eds) Biogeochemical Approaches to Paleodietary Analysis. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp. 243-259.

Ambrose, S.H. and M.A. Katzenberg (eds). (2000) Biogeochemical Approaches to Paleodietary Analysis. Advances in Archaeological and Museum Science. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York. 261 pp.

Stott, A.W., R.P. Evershed, S. Jim, V. Jones, M.J. Rogers, N. Tuross, and S.H. Ambrose. (1999) Cholesterol as a new source of paleodietary information: Experimental approaches and archaeological applications. J. Archaeological Sci. 26:705-716.