Paleodiet in the Atacama Desert (Arica, Chile) and Andean Highlands (Ayacucho Basin, Peru) Using Stable Isotope Analyses of Dental Calculus

Summary

Long-considered a nuisance, dental calculus has recently enjoyed attention as a potentially useful alternative biomaterial for a variety of anthropological applications, including stable isotope analysis as a technique to study paleodiet. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of dental calculus have been measured for populations near Arica, Chile in the Atacama Desert (Archaic-Late Intermediate period), and post-Wari (Late Intermediate Period) populations from the Ayacucho Basin, Peru in the Andean Highlands.

The Arica analyses are characterized by very heavy δ15N compositions, from +17.8 to +33.1‰. These values can be explained, in part, by a diet with significant components of isotopically heavy marine resources and plants with δ15N shifted towards heavy values due to the hyper-aridity of the Atacama Desert. The heaviest δ15N values suggest the use of locally-derived isotopically heavy guano as a fertilizer during crop cultivation. The Ayacucho analyses show δ13C values ranging up to -12.3‰, consistent with the use of C4 plants as a major component of diet. δ15N values range up to +18.8‰, and as the site location likely precludes the use of marine resources, the heaviest values suggest the possibility of aridity-driven isotope enrichment and/or the use of camelid dung as a fertilizer during crop cultivation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Evolutionary Adaptations and Population History of the Atacama Desert   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15566