Dr. Klervia Jaouen is a CNRS researcher at the department of Geosciences and Environment (GET/ Géosciences Environnement Toulouse) at the Observatory Midi Pyrénées in Toulouse, where she is currently conducting an ERC Starting Grant Program (ARCHEIS) focusing on the use of novel isotopic tools such as Zn isotope ratios to track the onset of fish consumption among hominins. In this context, she is interested in working with the BAP to explore the Zn isotope fractionation existing in aquatic food webs from lake and cold environment. She will supervise Gwen Le Bras, a MSC student who will be in charge of performing Zn isotope analyzes on dental enamel, Sr isotope analyzes (a mobility /geographical origin tracer) also on dental enamel, and C and N isotope analyzes on the amino acids of the collagen (excellent tracers of trophic level and aquatic food consumption) belonging to fish, sea mammals, terrestrial mammals and humans from the different archeological populations of the BAP.
Klervia Jaouen’s background is in geochemistry and she uses since her PhD (defended in 2012 at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and the University Claude Bernard, France) tracers coming from this field, but applied to archeological questions. She has been postdoctoral researcher for 6 years at the department of Human Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology where she mainly worked on the use of Zn isotopes to characterize ancient diets, notably through her DFG program « PALEODIET » (co-PI with Thomas Tütken).
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Zn isotope fractionation in various food webs, Ancient hominin diets (Neandertals, modern humans …), The onset of aquatic food consumption, Isoscapes and past human mobility, Development of new isotopic tracers of different food categories
