The University of Nottingham has appointed BGS senior isotope research geochemist, Angela Lamb, as an honorary professor. As part of her role, Angela will contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching alongside facilitating collaborative research programmes between BGS and the University of Nottingham.

Angela research focuses on the application of light stable isotopes to science-based archaeology, palaeoecology and environmental tracing, specialising in sulfur isotopes. She has developed a long-standing collaborative relationship with the University of Nottingham Department of Classics and Archaeology through the jointly operated Centre for Environmental Geochemistry. The centre focuses on the collaborative use of geochemistry in research, training and teaching, investigating:

• environmental and climate change
• biogeochemical cycling, including pollution typing and provenance
• science-based archaeology
• the use of geochemical tools for research into the subsurface

I’m thrilled to have been appointed as an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham and look forward to continuing to build on the legacy of shared research we have developed through the Centre for Environmental Geochemistry. This has already resulted in significant advances in the fields of bioarchaeology, palaeoecology and environmental archaeology.

Prof Angela Lamb, senior isotope research geochemist, BGS.

We’re delighted to welcome Angela Lamb as an honorary professor in the department. We have had a long and productive relationship with Prof Lamb and very much look forward to this continuing in the future. We are particularly excited to develop our work in dietary stable isotope analyses, which help us to understand what people and other animals ate and how societies functioned in the past.

Prof Hannah O’Regan, professor of archaeology and palaeoecology, University of Nottingham.

The mysteries of Stonehenge have baffled scientists for centuries. In the 2010s, archaeologists and geologists identified two quarries in Wales as the sources of Stonehenge legendary standing bluestones. Now, new evidence published by scientists in August 2025 consolidates this connection.

A century ago, in 1924, archaeologists discovered a cow jawbone that had been carefully placed beside Stonehenge south entrance and dated it to the monument very beginning in 2995 to 2900 BCE. The discovery has intrigued historians ever since. Why had it been placed there? Why was this animal considered special? Researchers from BGS, Cardiff University and University College London have used isotope analysis to bring this artifact to life, helping to reveal further tantalising glimpses into the origins of the historic landmark.

The scientists sliced the cow third molar tooth, which records chemical signals from the animal second year of life, into nine horizontal sections. They were then able to measure carbon, oxygen, strontium and lead isotopes, which each offer clues about the cow diet, environment and movement.

The oxygen isotopes revealed that the tooth captured roughly six months of growth, from winter to summer, whilst the carbon isotopes showed the animal diet changed with the seasons: woodland fodder in winter and open pasture in summer. Additionally, the strontium isotopes indicated the seasonal food sources came from different geological areas, suggesting that the cow either moved seasonally or that winter fodder was imported.

The lead isotopes revealed composition spikes during the late winter to spring, pointing to a lead source that was older than the lead in the rest of the tooth. The composition suggests the cow originated from an area with Palaeozoic rocks, such as the bluestones found in Wales, before moving to Stonehenge.

This is the first time that scientists have seen evidence linking cattle remains from Stonehenge to Wales, adding further weight to theories that cows were used in the transportation of the enormous rocks across the country.

This study has revealed unprecedented details of six months in a cow life, providing the first evidence of cattle movement from Wales as well as documenting dietary changes and life events that happened around 5000 years ago. A slice of one cow tooth has told us an extraordinary tale and, as new scientific tools emerge, we hope there is still more to learn from her long journey.

Prof Jane Evans, BGS Honorary Research Associate.

In addition to this discovery, researchers also concluded that the unusual lead signal could not be explained by local contamination or movement alone. Instead, there was another explanation: that lead stored in the cow bones had been remobilised during the stresses of pregnancy. If true, this would mean the cow was female and pregnant or nursing during the tooth formation. To test the hypothesis, the team applied a peptide-based sex determination technique at the University of Manchester, which showed there was a high probability that the animal was female.

This research has provided key new insights into the biography of this enigmatic cow whose remains were deposited in such an important location at a Stonehenge entrance. It provides unparalleled new detail on the distant origins of the animal and the arduous journey it was brought on. So often grand narratives dominate research on major archaeological sites, but this detailed biographical approach on a single animal provides a brand-new facet to the story of Stonehenge.

Richard Madgwick, professor of archaeological science at Cardiff University.

Stonehenge has many secrets left to be uncovered. However, this latest research helps fill in just a few more of those gaps as we learn more about this legendary landmark.

This is yet more fascinating evidence for Stonehenge’s link with south-west Wales, where its bluestones come from. It raises the tantalising possibility that cattle helped to haul the stones.

Michael Parker Pearson, professor of British later prehistory at University College London.

The research paper, , is now available to read.

Carbon and oxygen isotopes in carbonate are a useful tool that can tell us about our environment. For example, oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel are useful in archaeology when researchers want to find out where individuals they are working on are from, or to track animal movement and husbandry. We can also use this technique to analyse modern-day shells of molluscs such as whelks or scallops, to see how they are adapting to rising sea-water temperatures as a result of climate change. Ìý

Stable isotope analysis at BGS

The Stable Isotope Facility at BGS can analyse a range of carbonate types, including tooth enamel, speleothems, calcite minerals and a wide range of shells, for carbon and oxygen isotopes. We currently have several instruments that can analyse carbonate materials including very small samples down to 5 micrograms — which would fit on the head of a pin!  

During analysis, laboratory staff need to check whether the sample data produced is accurate. We do this by analysing standard materials that have a predetermined value in every sample batch. Both the samples and standards are analysed using the same method, so if the standard data is accurate and precise, the sample data should be correct. Standards are also used to correct data if there is a measurement offset from the known value. We use multiple standards to cover the range of our sample isotopic values.   

Why do we need in-house standards? ​  

We are developing new in-house (internal) standards to use in our laboratory for three reasons. Firstly, we analyse thousands of samples each year, which means we need a lot of standard material. International standards provided by external bodies can be expensive and can run out, so creating our own standards internally helps decrease costs and makes sure there always enough standard material available.  

Secondly, because we analyse some unusual carbonates, it is best to have a standard that matches the sample material we are measuring. Finally, there are very few oxygen isotope standards currently available for carbonates, especially carbonate in tooth enamel. This is because carbonates in powder form exchange oxygen with the atmosphere, causing carbonate isotope values to change over time, meaning materials used for standards do not last long.   

What are we testing?

We are currently working on developing three new internal carbonate standards that we can use as a reference material for our work.

The first is Bahamian oolite aragonite, which we call BOA for short, which comes from a beach composed of oolitic sand in the Bahamas. BOA is composed of round and tiny, egg-shaped ‘ooids’, which form in warm shallow seas and are then deposited on the beach.

The second is made up of fragments of whelk shells, (sometimes known as sea snails). The shells we have are waste from the fishing industry, where the whelk is removed and sold as food and the shells are repurposed for decorative use and in gardening.

The third and final material is from a high-temperature skarn (HiTS) rock that has come from western Romania. This rock formed when magma heated limestone bedrock from below, producing a skarn punctuated with calcite veins, which we extracted. ​This material is probably the most valuable to us as it has a very low oxygen isotope composition, making it useful as a reference material for archaeological tooth enamel samples, as they tend to have low values. 

Creating the internal standard

To use these new materials as an internal standard, we need to ensure that they meet certain requirements:  

• they have homogenous​ carbon and oxygen isotope values   

• there is an isotopic and chemical match to routine samples​  

• they are affordable, available, accessible and abundant  

• they are chemically and isotopically stable over time  

To make sure we meet these requirements, we have been working with other teams within BGS to help characterise our materials. So far, we have analysed them using our scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction, which tell us about what elements  make up these materials to check for impurities.  

We are currently analysing our three new standards at the Stable Isotope Facility over an extended period of time, to ensure that they produce consistent isotope values. So far, we have values with an error of less than 0.2 per mil, which is great news for the possibility of the Stable Isotope Facility laboratories and others in the organisation using these materials as an internal standard in future carbonate research. We hope to make these new standard materials available to other stable isotope facilities soon!

Contact

Please get in touch with either of the authors if you are interested in participating in an interlaboratory comparison, to enable us to certify the values of these new standard materials. 

About the authors

For centuries, Scotland identity has been closely linked to its stone-built heritage. Historic buildings provide not just a tangible link to the past, but are also a huge draw for millions of tourists from around the world — a vital source of income for the local economy.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) cares for more than 300 monuments and buildings of national importance across Scotland, which need to be protected for everyone future enjoyment and education. Maintaining these structures is an exercise that requires engineering expertise, highly skilled artisans and access to materials that will mirror those that were available at the time of construction.

Scotland built environment is intrinsically linked to the ground below it, created from diverse geology extracted from over 3700 quarries. It is this geology and the methods used to quarry, process and build with stone that create a sense of place, from the red sandstones of Dumfries to the grey stone granite of Aberdeen.

A new report, conducted by BGS and commissioned by HES, has highlighted the increasing opportunity to bring indigenous stone, including sandstone and flagstone, igneous and metamorphic rocks and roofing slate, back to the Scottish market. The opportunities presented within the report highlight the building stones and quarries most crucial to ongoing efforts to maintain these historic buildings for future generations, as well as supporting the potential for new build applications to contribute to Scotland transition to net zero.

Researchers found that:

• the cost of imported stone construction materials has risen by up to 98 per cent since 2015, possibly due to increasing fuel prices and shipping costs
• the Scottish and UK construction industry is increasingly vulnerable to erratic pricing and market volatility, due to an over-reliance on imported materials
• increased ranges in stone production locally create a more resilient supply chain and provide assurance of supply
• 139 disused building stone quarries and 31 quarries that currently only supply crushed-stone aggregate may have the potential to supply a significant proportion of Scotland building stone needs

The dwindling supply of local materials to protect fundamental parts of Scottish history is placing unique pressures on those who wish to maintain and protect our traditional and historic buildings.

A renewed Scottish building stone market would not only create rural skilled jobs and reduce carbon emissions, but also improve conservation outcomes for our important historic buildings. With that in mind, indigenous stone suppliers are faced with increased pressures and costs that make them uncompetitive against cheaper imported materials.

The report demonstrates that Scotland is more than capable of being self-sufficient with regard to its building stone requirements going into the future; however, this will require investment and support through innovation in procurement.

Graham Briggs, materials project manager at HES.

The full report suggests how the supply and use of Scottish building stones can be increased in Scotland, including increasing production at active quarries that already supply building stone.

The report also contains a series of three factsheets, which found:

• over 5 million tonnes of building stone are imported into the UK each year
• sandstone is the UK most imported stone each year
• roofing slate imports command the highest price — Scotland is particularly vulnerable to this, with no current source of Scottish roofing slate
• the cost of imported stone has almost doubled since 2015

If Scotland wants to continue to build in its traditional stone, conserving heritage buildings and ensuring new builds are also in keeping with the historic landscape, then action needs to be taken to source more stone locally.

Our latest report is a vital resource for policymakers and potential investors, providing them with a clear snapshot of current supplies that will help them to identify opportunities for growth and better inform investment in indigenous building stone production.

Imogen Shaw, building stone scientist, BGS.

The full factsheet is now available to read: .

Contact

For more information, please contact contact the BGS Press Office (bgspress@bgs.ac.uk) or call 07790 607 010.

My week began with a welcome tour of the research facilities at BGS and, more specifically, the geochemistry laboratories. The team provided an introduction to the field of mass spectrometry and the use of isotopes in archaeological research. The sample preparation, which happens under very precise, controlled conditions to exclude contamination, involves a huge amount work prior to analysis. It wasn’t long before I was gaining hands-on experience working with carbon isotopes from organic and inorganic materials, preparing samples and then analysing them on mass spectrometers. For me, one of the highlights was learning how to handle samples down to 40 micrograms in weight — which I can confirm is difficult to see with the naked eye!  

Geoarchaeology 

Dr Angela Lamb is well known for being one of the leading geochemists on the research into and analysis of King Richard III remains. She took the time to talk to me about the relevance and application of geochemistry in archaeological contexts. In relation to King Richard III, her detailed analysis has revealed various fascinating details about his life, for example that he lived in different locations through his childhood and into his adult years. Bones in our bodies reflect our diet and location (due to the underlying geology that creates different soil chemistries in different areas) and this type of analysis has been used in countless archaeological investigations — as featured in the TV programme ! Ìý

The BGS collections 

I was also taken on a tour of the BGS collections by Louise Neep. It was so exciting to see them in person, especially the vast fossil collections. Louise explained how conservation methods have evolved since the 18th century. I was able to see fossils that are up to 500 million years old and inspected ancient plants, trilobites and an ichthyosaur. It was thrilling to hold such ancient relics in my hands. Louise gave me a real appreciation for all the curation efforts that are taken by BGS staff members like Louise to preserve the relics for future scientific research.  

The week ended with an excellent conversation with Dan Condon, who works on dating meteorites. He explained how uranium–lead dating is used and the physics and chemistry involved, which was particularly relevant to my aspirations to be an astrophysicist.  

Overall, this was a very informative and exciting week that introduced me to various facets of laboratory life, which is very different to what we see at school. It has enhanced my understanding of which skills are essential for laboratory work, for example the high-precision, detail-oriented work on the samples, and the importance of handling scientific data. The week made me appreciate science methods and gain confidence that research in astrophysics is the ideal career for me.  

Thanks 

Thanks to all the staff at BGS who were very helpful, especially Charlotte Hipkiss, Jack Lacey, Kotryna Savickaite, Diksha Bista, Dan Condon, David King, Doris Wagner and Carol Arrowsmith. 

About the author 

Riveen Pehesara Kumanayaka is an aspiring astrophysicist who is currently studying for his A levels in physics, maths, computer science and English literature. 

Located on the border of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, is an enclosed limestone gorge surrounded by woodland, meadows and a lake. It has many caves and fissures containing prehistoric fossils and artefacts and is an area of interest to many scientific communities. The Victorians first discovered ancient artefacts in the cave sediments in the 19th century and, since then, scholars have been excavating the caves to answer pressing palaeontological and archaeological questions, and recreating fascinating stories of life during the last ice age, between 50 000 and 11 700 years before present (BP). 

The Cresswell Crags Museum

The objects excavated from the caves at Creswell Crags and from the wider Creswell Heritage Area are stored in the Creswell Crags Museum, which holds a collection of nearly 40 000 objects, approximately 80 per cent of which are bones. The palaeontological collection is composed of subfossils that date back to the late Pleistocene (125 000 BP) and include the remains of a large range of mammal, bird, amphibian, fish and mollusc species.  

In addition to being used for exhibition display, the fossils from Creswell Crags Museum collections are used for research purposes. BGS is currently collaborating on one such research project, the NERC-funded ‘Nature of the beast’, with Prof Danielle Schreve at Royal Holloway, University of London. The project is investigating past and present diets of European wolves. 

Why are we studying wolves and their diet? 

Wolves are one of the northern hemisphere top predators, keeping populations of their prey in check and positively influencing overall biodiversity through their activities. However, the wolf (Canis lupis) is an endangered species in Europe and concerns exist as to the viability of European wolf populations as environmental and climate conditions change. The overarching aim of the ‘Nature of the beast’ project is to assess the effect of forcing factors such as changes in climate, environment, the prey community and carnivore competition on the feeding behaviours of wolves. 

One of the best ways to investigate the adaptability of any animal, including wolves, is through the study of their dietary behaviour. Diet is closely linked to climate and environment, which determine the available prey species and which predators are competing for resources on those same landscapes. This project employs a multi-proxy approach that combines dental microwear texture analysis, isotope analysis, cranio-dental morphology and analysis of scat to reconstruct wolf diets from the late Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene (the current warm period). 

Dental microwear texture analysis

Dental microwear textural analysis (DMTA) is a way of investigating features on the biting surface of teeth. DMTA uses three-dimensional technology to image the tooth surface, which can be measured with specialised software in an unbiased way that is independent of human observer errors. Once measured, tooth surface features can show the extent to which carnivores are consuming meat or processing carcasses more fully, in other words, assessing the flesh-to-bone ratio of their diets.  

One way to think about how we analyse dental microwear is to consider animals that populate the extremes of the carnivore dietary behaviour continuum today. For example, the spotted hyena consumes a lot of bone as part of its natural behaviour; on the other hand, the cheetah primarily consumes flesh and prefer fresh kills.

Wolves fall on this spectrum somewhere between hyenas and cheetahs, and are known to flex their diet according to their surroundings. Observations from modern wolves have shown that they do consume some bone and prefer greasy, less dense, marrow-rich bones. Dental microwear studies of modern and ancient wolves confirm this dietary behaviour.

However, when unable to access their preferred prey species (likely due to limited prey availability in their surroundings) wolves scavenge more intensively, resulting in dental textures that indicate elevated amounts of bone in their diet. Scavenging is part of the flexible dietary behaviour of wolves, which is reflected in their dental microwear and can inform our understanding of past environmental conditions, such as the size and availability of prey species.  

Initial project results  

A key goal of this research is to understand how wolves have adapted to changing circumstances in the past, so that current and future conservation policy can be appropriately tailored. Preliminary results have shown that, when temperatures were colder, the dental microwear of wolves indicates high flesh consumption. Inversely, when temperatures were warmer, wolves increased scavenging behaviour (consuming more bone). 

Creswell Crags Museum collections hold fossil bones of wolves dating back 40 000 years. Some of these fossils were discovered due to a rock fall near the Dog Hole cave in 1978, along with bones of a diverse range of other animals including lynx, cow, horse and wild boar. They have since been used to provide evidence of a complex sequence of prehistoric animal occupation within the area. 

Three individual wolves have been analysed for dental microwear and represent one glacial and one interglacial period. The results from Creswell Crags will be combined with data collected from other museum fossils across the UK, including the collection housed at BGS, and spanning the entirety of the late Pleistocene to the Holocene.  

About the authors

Dr Diksha Bista

Dr Angela Lamb

Dr Amanda Burtt (Royal Holloway, University of London) 

(Creswell Crags Museum and Heritage Centre) 

Prof Danielle Schreve (Royal Holloway, University of London)Ìý

For the last 10 000 years, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) are now endangered, whilst European fallow deer (Dama dama) are globally widespread and are simultaneously considered wild, domestic, endangered and invasive.

Fallow deer populations

New research led by Durham University and the University of Exeter combined DNA analyses with archaeological approaches, including isotope analyses in collaboration with BGS. This multi-proxy approach suggests that, after the last glacial maximum, there were two distinct European fallow deer populations. The analysis revealed that Persian fallow deer were more widespread than has previously been proposed, whilst European fallow deer were likely restricted to Anatolia and the Balkans, and two distinct populations existed on either side of the Bosphorus, a waterway in Istanbul, Turkey.

Additionally, tracing their spread reveals that fallow deer were repeatedly sourced from the furthest available populations. The Neolithic deer on the Aegean island of Chios, and likely Rhodes, derived from the Balkans, rather than nearby Anatolia, whilst those on Majorca in Roman times were D. mesopotamica rather than the D. dama, which could have come from the Iberian peninsula. As well as this, the deer reintroduced to medieval Britain were brought from Anatolia instead of Iberia or Italy, as previously thought.

Re-establishing fallow deer

There are several active campaigns to re-establish fallow deer in the Balkans and preserve the last remaining wild herd in Daği-Termessos National Park, Turkey. However, without knowledge of the species’ deep-time biomolecular and phylogeographic history, deer are being sourced from the least appropriate populations. For instance, those being reintroduced to the Balkans possess Anatolian ancestry.

Furthermore, these Anatolian deer are being introduced to regions that have, for thousands of years, preserved deer with Balkan ancestry. Whilst Anatolia-derived deer are increasing in numbers around the world, the DaÄŸi-Termessos herd is still under threat. The research suggests that north European deer of Anatolian ancestry could be introduced to the DaÄŸi-Termessos park, while Iberian/Italian/Rhodes deer populations would be a better source for Balkan rewilding projects.

Future protection?

Ancient dispersals of people, ideas and animals are widely celebrated as cultural heritage. However, this study found that the more recent the animal migration, the more negative the attitude is towards them. Such perceptions can translate into animal management and policymaking.

The fallow deer of Rhodes were introduced during the Neolithic and are viewed as a cultural asset, protected by Greek law and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The fallow deer of Barbuda are equally culturally significant as the island national animal, yet they have no legal protection and are labelled as ‘invasive’ within the conservation literature. In truth, they are dismissed only because their introduction occurred too recently to have acquired a patina of age-based authenticity.

While many species may legitimately be labelled as invasive, this is not true of all translocated populations, and some do deserve protection. Preoccupation with native and wild species can come at the expense of often equally endangered translocated animals that are not only critically entangled with human history but also offer a conservation resource for replenishing diminished autochthonous or indigenous populations. This study suggests it might be time to rethink our attitudes towards animals with the planet biodiversity crisis.

A total of 418 specimens were submitted for multi-element isotope analyses at the laboratory with the results providing information on the environmental conditions the deer were living in and their diet, thus improving our overall understanding of the species’ ecological history.

Angela Lamb, BGS Isotope Geochemist.

More information

Studying the diet of an animal that roams the Earth today is relatively straightforward. Their eating habits can be easily tracked and their food sources monitored using their faecal matter (‘scat’). But how do you study the diet of animals that have been dead for thousands of years? The NERC/51ÁÔÆæ-funded project ‘Hungry like a wolf’, carried out by BGS together with Royal Holloway University London, aims to do exactly that: study the diets of wolves that lived in Britain during the last 250 000 years.

Investigating ancient animals’ diets

The project adopts the adage ‘we are what we eat’. The type of diets an animal consumes are imprinted on the wear and tear on their teeth and the stable isotope signature in their body tissues. For animals that are no longer alive, studying these signatures in fossil bones and teeth provides a window into the animal diet and consequently into how their diets have changed over time with fluctuating climatic and ecological conditions. The project aims to understand how wolves have adapted to changing environments by comparing the diet of past (10 000 to 250 000 years) and present wolves, along with other predators and prey from different locations across Europe.ÌýÌý

Top ice age predators

Although they were the first animals to be domesticated by humans, wolves were well-established members of the Pleistocene (ice age) carnivore community in Europe. As one of the top predators, wolves keep the populations of their prey in check and, as a knock-on effect, affect the biodiversity of other predators in the area as well as other animal and plant species further down the food chain by limiting over-predation and over-browsing on vegetation. Wolves are therefore considered the most influential large predator in the northern Eurasia region.  

Project aims

Unfortunately, many surviving populations of these charismatic animals are today endangered because of human persecution and environmental change. Serious concerns exist as to the viability of European wolf populations under different scenarios of environmental and climate change. It is therefore essential to understand how wolves have adapted to changing circumstances in the past, so that current and future conservation policy can be appropriately tailored.

The project is being carried out by Dr Angela Lamb and Dr Diksha Bista at BGS, together with Prof Danielle Schreve, Dr Fabienne Pigière and Dr Amanda Burtt (Royal Holloway University London). It will involve museum collections from across the UK.

The collections housed here at BGS were some of the first to be analysed. These collections comprise Quaternary (up to 2.58 million years ago) subfossil bone material that has been held in the museum since the late 1800s. Specimens were collected from Ilford by Richard Payne Cotton and donated in 1877, whilst those from Crayford are from the collection of Frederick Spurrell, donated in 1894.

Although the material was collected over 150 years ago, advancing research technologies allow us to uncover new information that can enhance our understanding of past environments and ecosystems. Even though the subsampling involves removing a small amount of material from the selected bones, the insights gained from the analysis can add significantly to the understanding of the fossils held in the collection since the Victorian era.

Louise Neep, BGS Museum Curator.

Laboratory analysis

In the laboratory, collagen will be extracted from the bones and analysed for nitrogen (N), carbon (C) and sulfur (S) isotopes. Recent technical developments within the Stable Isotope Facility now allow the measurement of these isotopes on a significantly smaller amount of collagen (10 times smaller). This advance means much less sample needs to be removed from the fossils, thus preserving the integrity of precious museum specimens.Ìý

Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank Paul Shepherd (collections manager) and Simon Harris (conservator) for their support with the project.

About the authors