Archaeological applications of stable isotope data have become increasingly prevalent, and the use of these data continues to expand rapidly. Researchers are starting to find that recovering data for multiple elements provides additional insight and quantitative data for answering questions about past human activities and behaviors. Many stable isotope studies in archaeology, however, rarely move beyond comparisons of descriptive statistics such as mean, median, and standard deviation. Over the last decade, ecologists have formalized the concept of isotopic niche space, and corresponding isotopic niche overlap, to incorporate data from two or more isotopic systems into a single analysis. Additionally, several methods for quantifying isotopic niche space and overlap are now available. Here, I describe the evolution of the isotopic niche space concept and demonstrate the usefulness of it for archaeological research through three case studies using the recently developed rKIN package that allows for a comparison of different methods of isotopic niche space and overlap estimations. Two case studies apply these new measures to previously published studies, while a third case study illustrates its applicability to exploring new hypotheses and research directions. The benefits and limitations of quantifying isotopic niche space and overlap are discussed, as well as suggestions for data reporting and transparency when using these methods. Isotopic niche space and overlap metrics will allow archaeologists to extract more nuanced information from stable isotope datasets in their drive to understand more fully the histories of the human conditions.

稳定同位素数据的考古应用变得越来越普遍，并且这些数据的使用继续迅速扩大。研究人员开始发现，恢复多个元素的数据为回答有关过去人类活动和行为的问题提供了额外的洞察力和定量数据。然而，考古学中的许多稳定同位素研究很少超越描述性统计数据的比较，例如平均值、中位数和标准偏差。在过去的十年中，生态学家已经将同位素生态位空间和相应的同位素生态位重叠的概念正式化，以将来自两个或多个同位素系统的数据整合到单一分析中。此外，现在可以使用几种量化同位素生态位空间和重叠的方法。这里，我描述了同位素生态位空间概念的演变，并通过使用最近开发的 rKIN 包的三个案例研究证明了它对考古研究的有用性，该包允许比较同位素生态位空间和重叠估计的不同方法。两个案例研究将这些新措施应用于先前发表的研究，而第三个案例研究说明了其探索新假设和研究方向的适用性。讨论了量化同位素生态位空间和重叠的好处和局限性，以及使用这些方法时的数据报告和透明度建议。