Using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to reconstruct palaeodietary habits and subsistence practices

Abstract

Diet in historic and archaeological populations has traditionally been reconstructed using ethnographic, textual records, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains etc., but these data sources can tell us only what resources were available. However, stable isotope analyses provide a direct measure of the broad categories of foods that were actually exploited and consumed. Thus, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes composition of collagen extracted from human and animal bone can be used in dietary studies of past human populations to observe changes in subsistence strategies, migration, crop and animal managements, intra-population variation in diet over time or by age, sex, burial type, and weaning process. The application of stable isotopes to archaeological and historic materials was a relatively late bloomer in Turkey, with the first study not conducted until 2003. For future perspectives, by analysing a greater number, and larger sample sets from different regions and time periods we can improve and advance our knowledge and understanding, creating a larger dataset of isotopic values for metadata analysis and cross comparisons between individuals, sites, time periods, and across regions.