Braden Cordivari

25 February 2026

SAS welcomes the latest Student Ambassador, Maren von Mallinckrodt, a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at the University of Iceland! Maren’s research focuses on non-adult skeletal remains from the medieval period in Iceland, exploring questions of health, mortality, and social identity. Maren is looking forward to using the ambassador program as a platform to represent Northern Europe and connect early-career researchers in archaeological sciences, both within the region and beyond. She is currently one of the main organizers of the 9th Workshop Young Researchers in Archaeometry, supported by SAS and taking place in Reykjavík in October 2026, is excited to continue building networks and strengthening collaboration across the community in this role.

Braden Cordivari

25 February 2026

In this installment of SAS Board Reading Recommendations, SAS President Elect Paul Szpak selected “Major excursions in sulfur isotopes linked to permafrost change in Eurasia during the last 50,000 years” by Rhiannon Stevens et al., published in Nature Geosciences in August 2025. Stevens et al. determined the sulfur isotope composition (δ³⁴S) of the bone collagen of over 700 ¹⁴C-dated mammalian megafauna from Eurasia. They found unusually low sulfur isotope values in some regions between 30,000 and 15,000 years BP, which they dub the Late Pleniglacial Sulfur Excursion. They suggest that this pattern of very low sulfur isotope values was driven by changing permafrost dynamics, specifically in areas that had extensive permafrost that later melted. This melting altered the water availability in the soil, creating conditions that favoured waterlogged conditions, encouraging the production of sulfides via bacterial dissimilatory sulfate reduction. Of the chemical elements common in organic compounds (CHONS), sulfur is notoriously difficult to analyze via stable isotope analysis: it is not very abundant and the SO₂ that is produced during analysis is very ‘sticky’. Because it has been less commonly analyzed, we are just starting to gain a deeper understanding of how and why sulfur isotopes vary in the biosphere. The paper by Stevens et al., is one of several recent studies that have found that wetlands and similar environments produce characteristically low sulfur isotope values, meaning that they could serve as a marker of exploitation of these environments by past human and animal populations.

Stevens, R.E., Reade, H., Sayle, K.L., Tripp, J.A., Frémondeau, D., Lister, A., Barnes, I., Germonpré, M., Street, M., Murton, J.B., Bottrell, S.H., James, D.H., Higham, T.F.G., 2025. Major excursions in sulfur isotopes linked to permafrost change in Eurasia during the last 50,000 years. Nat. Geosci. 18, 961–965. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01760-x

See also:

Guiry, E.J., Orchard, T.J., Needs-Howarth, S., Szpak, P., 2022. Freshwater wetland–driven variation in sulfur isotope compositions: Implications for human paleodiet and ecological research. Front. Ecol. Evol. 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.953042

Lamb, A.L., Chenery, C.A., Madgwick, R., Evans, J.A., 2023. Wet feet: developing sulfur isotope provenance methods to identify wetland inhabitants. R. Soc. Open Sci. 10, 230391. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230391

Metcalfe, J.Z., Eady-Sitar, L.E., Hyodo, A., Belot, T., 2024. Sulfur isotope analysis of collagen: Quality controls and proboscidean wetland habitats. Quaternary Environments and Humans 2, 100040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100040

Braden Cordivari

13 February 2026

The Society for Archaeological Sciences (SAS) in collaboration with SGS Beta invites applications for the SGS Beta-SAS Radiocarbon Dating Award. This is an annual competition to award one free AMS radiocarbon date analyzed at SGS Beta. The award is designed to promote the creative use of radiocarbon dating in archaeology and related disciplines, and to propagate such applications into geographic and thematic research areas underrepresented in existing radiocarbon dating work.

The deadline for applications is March 6, 2026. Find out more about eligibility and the application procedure here.

In advance of the application deadline, Dr. Maren Pauly of SGS Beta and the Society for Archaeological Science Student Ambassador team will host an informational webinar, “Radiocarbon Dating for Archaeology.” This webinar will explain how to choose, submit, and interpret archaeological samples to produce dates you can confidently use and defend. We hope that prospective applicants to the award will attend the webinar. This session will take place on February 27, 2026 at 11:00 am Eastern Time (US and Canada)/4:00 PM GMT. Sign up here!

SAS thanks SGS Beta for partnering to encourage early career researchers in archaeological science!  

For more information about SGS Beta, visit www.radiocarbon.com.

Braden Cordivari

13 February 2026

Organized by the SAS Student Ambassadors, the awards ceremony held on the 28^th of January 2026 aimed to highlight and celebrate the achievements of researchers who have won SAS awards between the years 2022 and 2025.

The awards presented reflect the breadth, rigor, and innovation that define our field—from student research and early career achievement to outstanding published scholarship and interdisciplinary work that advances how we understand the past through scientific methods.

These honors represent more than individual accomplishments. They recognize curiosity, collaboration, and the dedication to scientific inquiry that strengthens archaeological research worldwide. We are especially proud to acknowledge the students and early career researchers whose work continues to shape the future of our discipline.

-Alana Pengilley, SAS Student Ambassador

Braden Cordivari

10 February 2026

We are delighted to welcome Rebeca Custódio as the newest Student Ambassador! This program is designed to engage students in professional development and outreach. Rebeca is currently pursuing a Master’s in Archaeology at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP), focusing on the funerary practices of the fisher-gatherer groups who occupied the Brazilian coast. She is particularly interested in the thermal alterations to human bones resulting from cremation rituals, integrating macroscopic and physicochemical analyses of burned remains to improve our understanding of funerary practices and the taphonomic pathways of thermally altered bones. Rebeca’s work with SAS will be focused on breaching a gap in collaborations between the Global South and other nations in Archaeological Sciences. Although her research focus is Bioarchaeology, she plans to organize events dedicated to making connections within the archaeological community. Welcome, Rebeca!

Braden Cordivari

27 January 2026

This month's SAS Executive Board Reading Recommendation comes from Vana Orfanou, VP for Social Media. These reading recommendations are informal and unofficial, highlighting the personal selections of our board members. Papers may be chosen for their novel methodological or theoretical angles, clarity of argument, or engaging topic. (A reminder that SAS members can highlight their own research through our Spotlight program!)

Vana has selected "Tracking Bronze Age ‘itinerant smiths’ in western Poland: insights from Nd and Sr isotope data" by Mateusz Stróżyk et al., which was recently published in Archaeometry. Vana writes: "The paper presents combined insights into the provenance of metallurgical stone moulds via Nd isotopes alongside insights into human mobility via Sr isotopes on human remains from smiths’ graves identified as such from the burial offerings, including the stone moulds. I find this paper particularly exciting for its combination of methods and materials, bringing together material and bioarchaeological insights to address the long-standing question around itinerant smiths during the European Bronze Age. The results of the study, indeed, seem to prove that human mobility was an aspect of early metallurgy." 

Check out the paper (avaialable Open Access) here: