Not entirely sure if this falls under the Biology or Chemistry tag but heigh ho!
I am a Viking Reenactor and our group is very education focused and as part of my stall on Viking Funerals I talk about how scientists can test bodies to find out where they’re from and what their diets were like but I don’t actually know “how” this works…
In: Biology
Carbon dating works by measuring the difference in carbon-12 and carbon-14. When something dies it stops taking in carbon-14.
We know how long carbon-14 takes to break down; so by measuring the difference we know how long ago something died
Carbon dating can’t help us determine diet*; but jaw and tooth remains can. Primarily carnivores will have different observable differences than primarily herbivores in the build of the jaw and wear patterns of the teeth…..we can then study other artifacts like books/songs/paintings/animal bones to see what the likely diet was at the time
*other analysis of isotopes in the bones can help narrow down diet; certain grains will leave markers and seafood vs land protein also have different markers
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