Effect of diet, physiology and climate on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of collagen in a late pleistocene anthropic palaeoecosystem: Marillac, Charente, France

Fizet, Marc; Mariotti, André; Bocherens, Hervé; Lange‐Badré, Brigitte; Vandermeersch, Bernard; Borel, J.P.; Bellon, Georges

doi:10.1016/s0305-4403(95)80163-4

Cited by 170 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…However, by employing fauna that are as geographically and temporally as close to our samples as possible, we should be providing an appropriate comparative framework for the Vindija Neanderthal samples. Moreover, the relative distribution, especially of ␦ 15 N values, for the species included in this pooled sample is similar to the distributions derived for various faunal species from single sites (10,11).…”

Section: Vindija Neanderthal and Faunal Isotope Valuessupporting

confidence: 74%

“…The ␦ 13 C values are more indicative of open-ranging species (Ϸ20 0 ⁄00), rather than forest-dwelling species (Ϸ22 0 ⁄00), but ranges of variation in Late Pleistocene Bos͞Bison ␦ 13 C values (24) as well as the hilly terrain in the vicinity of Vindija Cave make it difficult to assess which of these bovine genera is most likely represented. The cave bear samples are interesting from a paleobiological, rather than an anthropological, perspective as they have very low (31); they may also be a result of their unusual metabolism related to hibernation (32), although the hibernation model has been disputed (30 (22), as well as those of earlier carnivores from Marillac and Scladina (10,11), indicating that these Neanderthals had diets similar to nonhuman carnivores.…”

Section: Vindija Neanderthal and Faunal Isotope Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This stable isotope evidence can therefore provide us with direct information on Neanderthal diet. This method has been applied to Neanderthal remains from the sites of Marillac, France (10), and Scladina Cave, Belgium (11). These studies, focusing particularly on their high ␦ 15 N values, indicated that the Neanderthals measured occupied the top trophic level, obtaining nearly all of their dietary protein from animal sources.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes

Richards

Pettitt

Trinkaus

et al. 2000

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

345

152

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Archeological analysis of faunal remains and of lithic and bone tools has suggested that hunting of medium to large mammals was a major element of Neanderthal subsistence. Plant foods are almost invisible in the archeological record, and it is impossible to estimate accurately their dietary importance. However, stable isotope (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) analysis of mammal bone collagen provides a direct measure of diet and has been applied to two Neanderthals and various faunal species from Vindija Cave, Croatia. The isotope evidence overwhelmingly points to the Neanderthals behaving as top-level carnivores, obtaining almost all of their dietary protein from animal sources. Earlier Neanderthals in France and Belgium have yielded similar results, and a pattern of European Neanderthal adaptation as carnivores is emerging. These data reinforce current taphonomic assessments of associated faunal elements and make it unlikely that the Neanderthals were acquiring animal protein principally through scavenging. Instead, these findings portray them as effective predators.

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Section: Vindija Neanderthal and Faunal Isotope Valuessupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Vindija Neanderthal and Faunal Isotope Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes

Richards

Pettitt

Trinkaus

et al. 2000

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

345

152

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“…I sotope evidence is a powerful tool for reconstructing past human diets and subsistence adaptations (1)(2)(3), and it has been applied to a number of Neanderthals and early modern humans from Europe (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). In 2 earlier studies (10, 11), we argued that Neanderthals had relatively uniform dietary adaptations while early modern humans in Europe had more variable isotope values-and therefore diets-than the Neanderthals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

Richards

Trinkaus

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

315

168

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We report here on the direct isotopic evidence for Neanderthal and early modern human diets in Europe. Isotopic methods indicate the sources of dietary protein over many years of life, and show that Neanderthals had a similar diet through time (Ϸ120,000 to Ϸ37,000 cal BP) and in different regions of Europe. The isotopic evidence indicates that in all cases Neanderthals were top-level carnivores and obtained all, or most, of their dietary protein from large herbivores. In contrast, early modern humans (Ϸ40,000 to Ϸ27,000 cal BP) exhibited a wider range of isotopic values, and a number of individuals had evidence for the consumption of aquatic (marine and freshwater) resources. This pattern includes Oase 1, the oldest directly dated modern human in Europe (Ϸ40,000 cal BP) with the highest nitrogen isotope value of all of the humans studied, likely because of freshwater fish consumption. As Oase 1 was close in time to the last Neanderthals, these data may indicate a significant dietary shift associated with the changing population dynamics of modern human emergence in Europe.Europe ͉ isotopes ͉ collagen ͉ fishing

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“…The first analysis on Neanderthals was done on Les Pradelles (France) (Fizet et al, 1995). Since then, about twenty other specimens have been analysed around the Eurasian continent (see review from Richards and Trinkaus, 2009).…”

Section: Neanderthal Dietary Isotopic Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

Salazar‐García

Power

Serra³

et al. 2013

Quaternary International

116

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a b s t r a c tDuring recent decades, Neanderthal diet has been a major research topic in palaeoanthropology. This has been accelerated by the maturation of different techniques, which have produced a plethora of new information. However, this proliferation of data has led to confusing and contradictory results. Furthermore, most of the ecological dietary studies have been carried out on specimens drawn from different time periods and regions, almost exclusively those characterized by cold, open environmental conditions. Subsistence models based on these fragmentary data have been applied to Neanderthals living in a variety of different regions and environments, even though their dietary strategies may have been as variable as regions they inhabited. In this paper we integrate different dietary approaches (studies of the zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and plant remains) from the central and southeastern Mediterranean coast of Iberia in order to develop a broader and more complex picture of Neanderthal diet in different Mediterranean environmental conditions. Our results suggest that there may have been some minor dietary variation due to climatic or environmental differences, but that Neanderthal diet focussed on large terrestrial game, supplemented by plant foods when these were available.Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Neanderthal dietary ecologyThe dietary behaviours of Neanderthals and the relationship between their diet and their social organization, technological abilities, and even their eventual disappearance, have been hotly debated in the anthropological literature. Examining the diets of Neanderthals requires the synthesis of data that have been collected by numerous researchers over the last 150 years. In many cases, the differences between Neanderthal and early modern human diets have been emphasized, at the expense of cogent discussion of the variation within each group. Early modern humans lived in a wide variety of environmental contexts and likely pursued a variety of behaviours throughout this range of environments. The exclusively Eurasian distribution of Neanderthals did not include as many environments, but neither was it the exclusively cold Arctic climate that many have supposed it to be. A more detailed examination of the Neanderthal range and the effects of shifting global climates reveals that this group would have been exposed to a diverse range of environments (Hoffecker, 2009;MacDonald et al., 2009). Just as modern human dietary behaviour likely varied with environments, so, too, can we predict that Neanderthals had different diets in different environments.Our understanding of the diets of Neanderthals comes from three main lines of evidence. The first is the study of the human remains themselves, including the isotope signal recorded in their bones, the microwear on their teeth, and how factors of their lifehistory are related to diet. The second line of evidence includes the study of the remains of their food, in the form of animal and plant remains preserved ...

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Effect of diet, physiology and climate on carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of collagen in a late pleistocene anthropic palaeoecosystem: Marillac, Charente, France

Cited by 170 publications

References 45 publications

Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes

Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: The evidence from stable isotopes

Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

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