Isotopes (Other Keyword)
26-50 (64 Records)
In fifth century Copan, Honduras, beneath the city’s first dynastic monument a complete puma was offered beside a female human burial. Over three centuries later, under the watchful eye of sixteenth and final ruler of the dynasty Yax Pasaj, a series of sixteen felids (many of them jaguars) were placed in the dedicatory cache of Altar Q, the "stone of the founder." Here we investigate the remains of some of the largest carnivores on the landscape, the jaguar and puma, to analyze human-felid...
Hydrogen Isotopes in Archaeological Bone Collagen: Potential Combined Influence of Meteoric Water and Protein Intake (2018)
Hydrogen isotopes in archaeological bone collagen (i.e. δ2H-collagen) are poorly understood, but can potentially facilitate new understanding of the complex relationship between trophic level (i.e. animal protein consumption) and meteoric water controls on hydrogen isotopes in omnivorous humans. These concurrent influences on human δ2H-collagen values were examined in 11 North American archaeological sites. The δ2H-collagen values were compared to bone hydroxyapatite oxygen isotopes (i.e....
Identifying Fremont Large Game Hunting Practices through the Modified General Utility Index and Strontium Isotope Analysis (2018)
The analysis of faunal bones from several Fremont sites have resulted in complications when compared to the Modified General Utility Index (MGUI). In this research, I explore the processing and transportation techniques of Fremont hunters at Wolf Village by comparing skeletal frequencies to the MGUI. Then, I compare these frequencies with results of strontium isotope analysis on small artiodactyl teeth from Wolf Village to determine which species were obtained locally. I also identify the...
Integrating Isotope Analysis with Empirical Measures of Vitamin D Status: New Directions in the Study of Diet and Deficiency (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analytical techniques are increasingly employed alongside other innovative methods to gain a fuller understanding of past life-histories. Recent developments in biomedical sciences have offered non-invasive means of quantifying vitamin D status in individuals through the determination of 25(OH)D3...
Interpreting Precolumbian Mobility in Eastern Honduras Using Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Assignment Models (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Eastern Honduras was and is a culturally diverse region on the southern periphery of Mesoamerica. Limited research has been conducted in this region, especially when compared to the Maya in western Honduras. We present isotopic data from individuals interred at two sites, Cueva del Río Talgua and Cueva de las Arañas, which were primarily used during the...
Investigating Diet And Foodways In Post-medieval Ireland Using Organic Residue Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "FoodCult: Food, Culture and Identity in Ireland, c.1550-1650", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Organic residue analysis is commonly used to investigate prehistoric vessels to determine diet and animal management strategies worldwide. The technique allows the differentiation between various foodstuffs, including non-ruminant and ruminant carcass fats, dairy, aquatic and plant products. However, it is less...
Isotopes and Environments: Exploring Palaeoenvironmental Change during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian Region, Northern Spain (2016)
The Cantabrian region Northern Spain was an archaeologically important region throughout the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, and was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals in Europe, and during the Last Glacial Maximum the region acted as a refugium for plants, animals and humans. Changes in the environment are thought to have been driving factors behind the extinction of the Neanderthals, the rise of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs), and later the development of the rich cave art...
Isotopes and Texts: Animal Management Strategies in Ancient Greece (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Integrating textual sources, a largely qualitative dataset, with archaeological science, a largely quantitative dataset, is no easy task for archaeologists and historians. This paper reflects on the challenges and opportunities of integrating the textual and biochemical evidence for animal management in the ancient...
Isotopes of Coastal Ecuador (2017)
A preliminary report is presented on research into the diet, health, and mobility patterns for prehistoric coastal Ecuador, based on an analysis of both modern data and archaeological data from Site 035 Salango. An assessment of dietary habits provides insight into a broad range of societal developments, such as the implementation and timing of maize agriculture. Additional insights are provided by an osteological evaluation of human remains, with a particular focus on evidence of pathologies...
Isotopic Approaches to Marine Shell Exchange in the Southwest (2018)
Excavations have uncovered millions of marine shells throughout the Southwest. However, it was not an easily obtainable resource. The nearest possible location was the expansive shorelines of Sonora, Mexico. Archaeological literature is full of hypotheses regarding shell procurement and exchange—models of down-the-line trading, least cost, prestige, and group membership. Each of these hypotheses agrees that where and whom the people of the Southwest interacted with to acquire marine shell are...
Isotopic Data from Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) at Houck, Arizona (A.D. 800-1250) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As the only domesticated animal native to the North American continent, analysis of turkey husbandry in the prehistoric American Southwest is important to understand human-avian interaction, foddering techniques, and trade. Direct analysis of turkey remains provides information about their myriad functions. The Houck community of sites is located at 6,035...
Isotopic Evidence for Long-Distance Mammal Procurement, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA (2017)
Previous research on the prehistoric communities of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (ca. A.D. 800 – 1250) provides evidence of an extensive procurement system of non-local food and economic goods. In this paper we use oxygen, carbon, and strontium isotope analyses to establish whether animal protein followed a similar pattern. We contextualized our analyses of the archaeofaunas from recent excavations at Pueblo Bonito with data on modern faunas across an area of ~100,000 km2 around the site. Our...
Land-Use and Social Networking of the Indus Civilization Explored with Stable Isotopes in Faunal Remains (2016)
The region of Gujarat was the southernmost extension of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 B.C.), South Asia’s first experiment with urban society. In this region, distinctively Indus material culture was made and used at a series of small, monumentally walled manufacturing and trading centers situated along coastal trade and travel corridors that have often been interpreted as colonies established to facilitate the exploitation of the region’s rich natural resources. With the decline of Indus...
Lead Isotopes as a Tool for Identifying Human Mobility in Central Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lead isotopes have successfully been used in archaeology to trace artifact provenance and, more recently, to study human paleomobility through skeletal remains in regions with traditionally temperate climates, such as Europe. However, very few environmental lead isotope baseline studies have been conducted for the Americas, where anthropogenic lead...
Lead Isotopes as Chronological Markers for Colonial Period Ritual Drinking Vessels in the Andes (2018)
Ritual drinking vessels called qeros have been produced in the Andes for millennia. In the colonial period, Andean artists produced wooden qeros, many of which were decorated using a polychrome inlay technique. Almost all extant polychromed wooden qeros attributed to the colonial period derive from museum and private collections and lack provenience and precise means of dating. Here, we investigate the chronology and production of qeros by characterizing lead white pigment (lead hydroxycarbonate...
Life and death in the southeastern Maya periphery: Bioarchaeological and isotopic analysis of the Uxbenká burial population (2017)
The southern Belize region is typically considered geographically and culturally peripheral to the primary activity areas of the ancient Maya. Although researchers have documented the development of a "southern Belize style" in terms of architecture and material culture, to date very little systematic work has been undertaken to understand health, diet, and mortuary behavior in the region. Ten years of excavations at Uxbenká have yielded rich evidence of a continuous occupation spanning from the...
Material Wealth and Herding Power: A Pastoralist Perspective on Divine Lordship from Pashash, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fluctuating political allegiances during the Early Intermediate period (200 BCE–600 CE) were coopted by competing leaders throughout the central Peruvian highlands and more broadly in the south-central Andes. The relationships and conflicts that resulted from socioeconomic negotiations among local networks; alongside the vacuum of power left...
Mobility in North-Eastern Italy between the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods (2018)
The upheaval caused by the fall of the Roman Empire brought armies and new settlers in Italy in chaotic ways, producing significant changes to the socio-economic and political organization of the Empire. Material evidence has been irresolute in determining the actual significance of migratory movements due to the fast adoption of foreign customs to attain social power in the new political landscape. An interdisciplinary research using strontium isotope analyses on Late Roman and Byzantine...
Oyster Exploitation and Environmental Reconstruction in Historic Colonial Williamsburg (2016)
Oyster shell is one of the most frequently recovered materials from archaeological sites in the Chesapeake, but they are often un- or underutilized in archaeological interpretations. In an effort to explore what information these shells can provide, Colonial Williamsburg's Environmental Archaeology Laboratory has been engaged in an on-going, multi-site, multi-disciplinary, synchronic and diachronic program of research to investigate how oysters recovered from sites in the Virginia Tidewater can...
Pastoralist Intensification and Dietary Dynamics in the Mongolian Steppe: Multi-isotope Analyses of Human and Faunal Collagen (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The initial spread of pastoralism into the Mongolian steppe during the third millennium cal BC marked a major transformation in human subsistence. Dairying was practiced by early pastoralist groups, evidenced by the identification of milk proteins preserved in human dental calculus. However, we have a poor understanding of how the focused...
The Potential of Zn Isotope Ratios (δ66Zn) to Track Different Types of Plant Consumption (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is currently a growing body of evidence that Zn isotope ratios (δ66Zn) are a useful tool to assess the trophic level of past humans and animals from archaeological sites. However, the isotopic variability which has been previously measured in herbivorous species remains unexplained. In this contribution, we explore and attempt to explain the...
Quantitative Paleodietary Reconstruction with Complex Foodwebs: An Isotopic Case Study from the Caribbean (2018)
Stable isotope analysis is one of the most effective tools for paleodietary reconstruction and has been widely applied to a vast array of archaeological contexts including the Caribbean region. This region, however, possesses a particularly complex isotopic ecology, including both a large number of isotopically variable food sources and a high degree of isotopic overlap between different food groups. As such, to date, most regional paleodietary studies have been limited to descriptive and...
Reappraising Mobility during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE among Lowland Maya Populations: A Bioarchaeological and Isotopic Approach (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Conventional inferences of Maya mobility have been based on cultural exchange. The isotopic composition measured in human skeletal remains provides a direct measure of past peoples’ movements. Founded on published isotopic datasets across the Maya area,...
REFLEXIONES SOBRE LA NATURALEZA DEL PODER EN UNA POBLACIÓN MUISCA DE LA SABANA DE BOGOTÁ A TRAVÉS DE ESTUDIO DE LA DIETA (2016)
En esta presentación, queremos enfocarnos en la relación entre alimentación y otras dimensiones sociales de la sociedad Muisca asentada en una aldea del sur de la Sabana de Bogotá del periodo muisca tardío, como es el caso de status y género. Tradicionalmente, se ha asumido la existencia de un grupo de élite que tuvo ciertos privilegios y beneficios por encima del resto de individuos; sin embargo, la información de la dieta a través del análisis isotópico de una muestra de 250 individuos...
St. Lawrence Iroquoian Pottery Motifs and Dog Isotopes as Indicators of Population Movement in Jefferson County, NY (2018)
Pottery motifs are known to change across time, space, and group affiliation, and are something that can be observed archaeologically. Rim sherds recovered from archaeological sites in and around Jefferson County, NY, are observed in an attempt to better understand the occupation by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Each of the observed sherds displays some form of decorative motif that can potentially inform researchers about when and where it came from. It is hypothesized that these sherds can...