Stable Isotope Analysis: A Tool for Studying Past Diet, Demography, and Life History

Katzenberg, M. Anne

doi:10.1002/9780470245842.ch13

Cited by 336 publications

(407 citation statements)

References 163 publications

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“…These had a thickness of 1 cm and were further divided into quarters. The fat content in fresh bone (such as those used for the control and low temperature treatments) must first be removed because remnants of fatty acids can skew carbon isotopic data [27,32] and interfere with histological analyses. All samples were therefore defatted with diethyl-ether in a soxhlet extraction device to create equal conditions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the event that morphological skeletal identification or DNA analyses both produce negative results, stable isotope analyses can provide clues to the life history of an individual or its geographical origin that in turn may lead to a positive identification [22][23][24][25][26]. Stable isotope analyses have proven a powerful tool in anthropology and play a major role in the reconstruction of life histories of ancient populations (for a review see [27]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Research potential and limitations of trace analyses of cremated remains

Harbeck

Schleuder

Schneider

et al. 2011

Forensic Science International

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research potential and limitations of trace analyses of cremated remains

Harbeck

Schleuder

Schneider

et al. 2011

Forensic Science International

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“…This technique is based on the principle that the isotopic composition of the food eaten by both animals and humans is recorded on their body tissues after a predictable isotope fractionation (Schoeller, 1999, and see reviews by Ambrose, 1993;Katzenberg, 2000;LeeThorp, 2008;Sealy, 2001). …”

Section: Stable Isotopes and Palaeodietary Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotope evidence for the use of marine resources in the Eastern Iberian Mesolithic

Salazar‐García¹,

Aura²,

Olària³

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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a b s t r a c tThere are relatively few coastal Mesolithic sites in the Iberian Mediterranean region, probably due to a number of factors including sea level changes and the disappearance of sites due to agriculture and urbanisation. However, recent excavations have uncovered inland sites that have marine faunal remains (i.e. molluscs and fish) and lithics from the coastal area, which both indicate interactions between the coast and the upland valleys. These inland sites are located at a distance of 30e50 km from today's coastline and are at altitudes higher than 1000 m. We report on additional information on the links between the coast and these inland sites through the use of dietary isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis) of collagen extracted from human and faunal remains at the sites of Coves de Santa Maira, Penya del Comptador and Cingle del Mas Nou. The results indicate that Mesolithic diet in this region was largely based on C 3 terrestrial resources, but there was measurable evidence of low-level consumption of marine resources at both coastal and inland sites.

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“…This technique is based on the principle that the isotopic composition of the food eaten by both animals and humans is recorded on their body tissues after a predictable isotope fractionation (Schoeller, 1999, and see reviews by; Ambrose, 1993;Katzenberg, 2000;Sealy, 2001;Lee-Thorp, 2008).…”

Section: Stable Isotopes and Palaeodietary Reconstructionsmentioning

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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Stable Isotope Analysis: A Tool for Studying Past Diet, Demography, and Life History

Cited by 336 publications

References 163 publications

Research potential and limitations of trace analyses of cremated remains

Research potential and limitations of trace analyses of cremated remains

Isotope evidence for the use of marine resources in the Eastern Iberian Mesolithic

Neanderthal diets in central and southeastern Mediterranean Iberia

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