Nicole Hultquist

Areas of Interest

Stable Isotope Analysis; Biogeochemistry; Environmental Archaeology; Animal Domestication; Animal Husbandry; Mobility; Agricultural Intensification

Research Interests & Fieldwork

I am interested in using stable isotope analysis to explore past human-environment relationships, with a particular focus on animal management, pastoral practices, agricultural intensification, and environmental reconstruction. My doctoral research employs a multi-isotope, multi-material approach, integrating carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and strontium isotopes from both bioapatite and collagen, to investigate how herding strategies and land use evolved in response to environmental and socio-political changes. My work includes case studies from central Anatolia (Gordion) and the north coast of Peru, exploring long-term patterns of mobility, foddering, and landscape use.

Through the course of my Master of Science at Trent University, I performed strontium isotopic analysis on camelids from the Viru Valley to determine their geographic origin and mobility. These camelids were associated with the Early Intermediate occupation and the Middle Horizon sacrifices. This research is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. I also examined the use of ultrafilters in isolating collagen and optimized the refluxing temperature and pH across modern and archaeological samples to provide a general recommendation for collagen extraction across different labs.

Projects

Gordion Archaeological Project, Turkey

Publications

Defratyka, S.M., J.M. Fernandez, G.A. Adnew, G. Dong, P.M.J. Douglas, D.L. Eldridge, G. Etiope, T. Giunta, M.A. Haghnegahdar, A.N. Hristov, N. Hultquist, I. Vadillo, J. Jautzy, J.-H. Kim, J. Labidi, E. Lalk, W. Leavitt, J. Li, L.-H. Lin, J. Liu, L. Ojeda, S. Ono,  J. Rhim, T. Röckmann, B. Sherwood Lollar, M. Sivan, J. Sun, G.T. Ventura, D.T. Wang, E.D. Young, N. Zhang, and T. Arnold. 2025. Global inventory of doubly substituted isotopologues of methane (Δ¹³CH₃D and Δ¹²CH₂D₂) [Preprint]. Earth System Science Data Discussions. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-41

Hultquist, N., J.-F. Millaire, J.-F., and P. Szpak. 2025. Strontium isotopes and the geographic origins of camelids in the Virú Valley, Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science 174: 106142.

Haghnegahdar, M. A., N. Hultquist, N. D. Hamovit, S. A. Yarwood, A. Bouyon, A. J. Kaufman, J. Sun, C. Magen, and J. Farquhar. 2024. A better understanding of atmospheric methane sources using 13CH3D and 12CH2D2 clumped isotopes. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129(11):p.e2024JG008172.

Haghnegahdar, M. A., J. Sun, N. Hultquist, N. D. Hamovit, N. Kitchen, J. Eiler, S. Ono, S. Yarwood, A. J. Kaufman, R. Dickerson, A. Bouyon, C. Magen, and J. Farquhar. 2023. Tracing sources of atmospheric methane using clumped isotopes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(47):e2305574120.

Papers Presented

Nicole Hultquist, David C. Meiggs, Petra Vaiglova, Ethan F. Baxter, John M. Marston. 2024. Isotopic Analysis of Caprine Management at Gordion, Central Anatolia. Paper presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of ASOR, Boston, MA.

Nicole Hultquist, David C. Meiggs, Petra Vaiglova, Ethan F. Baxter, John M. Marston. 2024. Isotopic Analysis of Caprine Management from Archaeological Remains at the Ancient Urban Center of Gordion, Turkey. Paper presented at the 13th International Conference on the Application of Stable Isotope Techniques in Ecological Studies (IsoEcol2024), Fredricton, NB.