Stable isotope evidence for dietary diversification in the pre-Columbian Amazon

Abstract

Archaeological research is radically transforming the view that the Amazon basin and surrounding areas witnessed limited societal development before European contact. Nevertheless, uncertainty remains on the nature of the subsistence systems and the role that aquatic resources, terrestrial mammalian game, and plants had in supporting population growth, geographic dispersal, cultural adaptations and political complexity during the later stages of the pre-Columbian era. This is exacerbated by the general paucity of archaeological human remains enabling individual dietary reconstructions. Here we use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen to reconstruct the diets of human individuals from São Luís Island (Brazilian Amazon coast) dated between ca. 1800 and 1000 cal BP and associated with distinct ceramic traditions. We expanded our analysis to include previously published data from Maracá and Marajó Island, in the eastern Amazon. Quantitative estimates of the caloric contributions from food groups and their relative nutrients using a Bayesian Mixing Model revealed distinct subsistence strategies, consisting predominantly of plants and terrestrial mammals and variably complemented with aquatic resources. This study offers novel quantitative information on the extent distinct food categories of polyculture agroforestry systems fulfilled the caloric and protein requirements of Late Holocene pre-Columbian populations in the Amazon basin.

Fishing intensification as response to Late Holocene socio-ecological instability in southeastern South America

“…We used BSIMMs in FRUITS 3.1, opting for a concentration-dependent and routed model where it assumes that nitrogen isotopes are 100% sourced from proteins, while carbon isotopes can to some degree derive from carbohydrates and lipids, depending on diet 126 . FRUITS has previously been used with pre-Columbian coastal populations in lowland eastern South America 14 , 31 , 127 , thus offering a common framework for regional comparison of model outputs. An advantage of FRUITS is that it allows for modelling dietary routing (e.g.…”

The diet at the onset of the Andean Civilization: New stable isotope data from Caral and Áspero, North‐Central Coast of Peru

“… Note : The estimates were performed with FRUITS ( Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals : Fernandes et al, 2014) v.2.1.1 Beta program, using parameters from previous research (Colonese et al, 2020; Fernandes et al, 2015; Pezo‐Lanfranco et al, 2018), and food values from Andean species. Food (%): estimate of carbon/dietary calories contribution from each food group.…”

“…FRUITS is a valuable tool that allows to deal with numerous sources of uncertainty of complex diets (i.e., variability of food macronutrient compositions, uncertainties in food and consumer isotopic values, dietary routing, diet‐to‐consumer isotopic offsets) and permits the inclusion of information relative to food proportions that is better supported by the archeological record or more plausible, thereby retrieving additional reliable estimates on dietary composition (Colonese et al, 2020, p. 5; Pezo‐Lanfranco et al, 2018, p. 3).…”

“…This method is successfully being used for estimating dietary changes through time even if based on a limited number of individuals (Colonese et al, 2020;Fernandes et al, 2014Fernandes et al, , 2015Pezo-Lanfranco et al, 2018). Considering that preservation issues limit the number of individuals analyzed herein, the FRUITS package is the best method to extract maximal information on small sample sizes.…”

“…T A B L E 5 FRUITS dietary estimates for Aspero and Caral (Colonese et al, 2020;Fernandes et al, 2015;Pezo-Lanfranco et al, 2018), and food values from Andean species. Food (%): estimate of carbon/dietary calories contribution from each food group.…”