Ethnographic evidence demonstrates that hunter-gatherer children may forage effectively enough to supplement an adult provisioned diet, where ecology, subsistence strategies, and social organization are conducive to juvenile participation. We use stable isotope measures (δ 15 N and δ 13 C) from bone collagen and serial-samples of dentinal collagen extracted from first molars to examine childhood dietary patterns among 24 individuals from the Late Holocene Central California site CA-ALA-554. We identify weaning age and early childhood dietary patterns, and find evidence for independent child foraging among 25% of the sample population (n = 6), the majority of whom lived during the high-stress Medieval Climatic Anomaly (1100-700 BP).

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oIdentification and analysis of faunal and botanical remains provide important insight into paleodiet, but tend to average dietary behaviors over many individuals and large windows of time. Stable isotope analyses of human bone collagen and apatite, while less specific regarding diet, nicely complement faunal and macrobotanical analyses by giving glimpses into the diets of individuals, but still time-average diet over large windows (ca. 5-20 years). Recent advances in micro-sectioning of teeth provide the opportunity to examine intra-individual changes in diet over small windows of time, as small as 1 year or less. We use stable isotope data from human third molar dentin as a window into examining intra-individual variation in diet at a hunter-gatherer archeological site in Central California (CA-SOL-11). Data show significant dietary variation between individuals, suggesting there were many ways that individuals met basic dietary needs at the site. Data also show that some individuals significantly altered their diet in the course of their lives, with pulses of high brackish-water exploitation lasting between 1 and 4 years. We suggest one of three scenarios to explain these fluctuations: that brackish water foods served as fallback resources, that some individuals shifted their place of residence, or that changing trade relations may have caused fluctuations in consumption of brackish-water foods.

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Objectives: Analysis of a mass burial of seven males at CA-ALA-554, a prehistoric site in the Amador Valley, CA, was undertaken to determine if the individuals were "locals" or "non-locals," and how they were genetically related to one another.Methods: The study includes osteological, genetic (mtDNA), and stable (C, N, O, S) and radiogenic (Sr) isotope analyses of bone and tooth (first and third molars) samples.Results: Isotopes in first molars, third molars, and bone show they spent the majority of their lives living together. They are not locals to the Amador Valley, but were recently living to the east in the San Joaquin Valley, suggesting intergroup warfare as the cause of death. The men were not maternally related, but represent at least four different matrilines. The men also changed residence as a group between age 16 and adult years.Conclusions: Isotope data suggest intergroup warfare accounts for the mass burial. Genetic data suggest the raiding party included sets of unrelated men, perhaps from different households. Generalizing from this case and others like it, we hypothesize that competition over territory was a major factor behind ancient warfare in Central California. We present a testable model of demographic expansion, wherein villages in high-population-density areas frequently fissioned, with groups of individuals moving to lower-population-density areas to establish new villages. This model is consistent with previous models of linguistic expansion. Am J Phys Anthropol 159:116-125, 2016. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.A romanticized interpretation often depicts huntergatherers as peaceful peoples with, at most, very low rates of interpersonal violence when compared with more complex and state-level societies. Recent archaeological and anthropological research has challenged these notions (e.g., Walker, 1989;Keeley, 1996;LeBlanc, 1999;Lambert, 2002;Arkush and Allen, 2006; Allen, 2012;Jones and Allen, 2014). These studies suggest that the level of organization in warfare was often lower among hunter-gatherers, but that per-capita rates of non-lethal violence and homicide were often just as high (but see Fry, 2007 andFry andS€ oderberg, 2013 for an alternate perspective).The ancient hunter-gatherers of California have played an important part in this shift in thinking (Walker, 1989;Jurmain, 1991Jurmain, , 2001Jurmain and Bellifemine, 1997;Lambert, 1997Lambert, , 2007Andrushko et al., 2005Andrushko et al., , 2010Jurmain et al., 2009;Bartelink et al., 2013; Eerkens et al., 2014a,b;Schwitalla et al., 2014). Osteological studies show that violence often played a role in mortality. A recent compilation and survey of osteological data (Schwitalla et al., 2014) shows that sharp-force trauma appears in over 7% and blunt-force in over 4% of individuals

We explore early childhood dietary patterns in a Late Meroitic (first–fourth century CE) population (N = 11) from Sai Island, Sudan, using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in serial samples from permanent first molar dentin. Results suggest an average age of weaning of 2.7 years, but with significant interindividual variation in the timing of weaning, with evidence for a later age at weaning for two females (average 3.5 years) compared with four males (average 2.3 years). Isotopic results support significant input of C4 plant‐derived protein in the weanling and postweaning diets (20–50%), perhaps in the form of plant‐rich gruels, but no significant difference in the composition of diet by sex. We observe the highest interindividual variation in diets immediately postweaning (ca. 4–5 years), with increasing homogeneity in diet thereafter. Together, the results provide new insight into the early dietary histories of the elite Meroites along this part of the Nile.