Isotopes (Other Keyword)
51-64 (64 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geochemical studies of stable isotopes on archaeological skeletal material offer information on human and animal diet, mobility and migration, exchange, and climate. Here, we apply stable isotope studies to human and animal remains recovered from archaeological excavations at Trent’s Plantation in Barbados. Trent’s Plantation...
Stable isotope analysis of permafrost-preserved human hair and faunal remains from Nunalleq, Alaska: dietary variation, climate change and the pre-contact Arctic food-web (2015)
The reconstruction of diet and subsistence strategies is integral to understanding past societies and human-environment interactions. Here we present stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data from non-mortuary human hair and faunal remains from the site of Nunalleq, Alaska. Spanning the Little Ice Age (c.1350 to 1650 AD), this large, complex and well-preserved site offers a near-unique opportunity to reconstruct the pre-contact Arctic food-web and to explore temporal and site-spatial...
Stable Isotope Sourcing of Olivella Shell Beads from Central California (2015)
Although a temporally diagnostic type artifact, the pre-contact cultural role of Olivella beads is poorly understood for Central California and the San Francisco Bay Area. While important as an item of trade and burial wealth, the nature of Olivella bead origin and conveyance is uncertain. Stable isotope sourcing, using oxygen and carbon from serial sampling shell carbonate, provides a potential to locate where shell was collected for bead production. We document developments in a technique for...
Stable Isotopes and Historic Period Diets at the Spanish Mission of San Juan Capistrano, Bexar County, San Antonio, Texas (2015)
San Juan Capistrano was one of several missions established in Texas in the early 1700s. Stable isotopic data from burials at this Mission suggests that mission populations consumed a C4/CAM diet with enriched nitrogen. While some of these isotopic results are consistent with historic accounts of Mission diet, the dependence on C4 based animals with high nitrogen values led to suggestions that isotopic values reflected a pre-mission signature, possibly from the Texas Coast (Cargill 1996). We...
Stable Isotopic Insights into Changing Diets, Population Mobility and the Origins of Pastoral Nomadism in Early Bronze Age Mongolia (2015)
This paper presents human and faunal bone, dentine and enamel stable isotopic data from a small (n=30) Bronze Age skeletal assemblage excavated from a large burial mound (khirigsuur) complex (n=2000) located in northwest Mongolia (c. 3,500-2,700 BP). Covering 900 sq. km and spanning 600 years, osteological and mortuary data suggest no strict correlations occurred between individual age and sex estimates, and the size or form of burial mound, suggesting instead that khirigsuur variation signifies...
Strontium and oxygen isotope evidence for Maritime Archaic mobility patterns at the site of Port au Choix-3, Newfoundland (2017)
Recent archaeological and biomolecular investigations of the burial assemblage from the Maritime Archaic cemetery at Port au Choix-3, Newfoundland, reveal intriguing patterns of variability. New bone collagen stable isotope evidence supports significant dietary variation between individuals, and artifact-based analyses appear to indicate the site functioned as a meeting ground for different Maritime Archaic ethnic groups from within Newfoundland and the Atlantic region. When combined with...
Sustainable research in archaeological science: Examples from high-and low resolution biogeochemical studies of archaeological shell (2017)
Advances in archaeological sciences demonstrated the (almost) unlimited potential to apply new methods and techniques to existing and under-utilized archaeological collections. Developing programs of research using innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches to the analysis of material cultural, hard tissues, sediments and organic remains are critical to move the discipline of archaeological sciences forward. More critical, is the balance between technical skills one learns to become an...
Temporal Trends in Reliance on Maize among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Villages, as reflected in δ13C from Human Enamel (2015)
Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, there are indications of human population growth, suggesting crop intensification. Isotopic values from bone collagen have been inconsistent with this hypothesis, showing temporal and regional fluctuations that have led to hypotheses of sporadic overreliance on this super-crop. Following Katzenberg’s suggestion that intake of this carbohydrate should be measured through apatite rather than protein tissue, and with the permission of the...
Testing the Paleo-Agulhas Plain Migration Ecosystem hypothesis with serial isotope analysis of fossil fauna (2015)
In contrast to Holocene sites, late Pleistocene sites along the South African south coast are dominated by large and medium-sized ungulates, many of which are typical of open-habitat grasslands and migration ecosystems. During much of the late Pleistocene, sea levels were substantially lower, exposing the Paleo-Agulhas Plain up to 100 km south of the modern coastline. The Migration Ecosystem hypothesis proposes that the Paleo-Agulhas Plain supported a migration ecosystem driven by summer...
Tiwanaku Pastoralism, Highland Bofedales, and Grasslands in Far Southern Peru: Creating a Strontium Baseline and Isoscape to Understand Cultural Connections (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Camelid pastoralism was an economic mainstay of the Tiwanaku Empire (~AD 600-1000). Communities of colonists in Moquegua, Peru were connected to their Tiwanaku capital near Lake Titicaca through an informal trade route traversing the altiplano. One component of Tiwanaku hegemony involved the movement of goods via llama caravans...
Tree Ring Isotope Record of Climate Change at the Ramaditas site in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile (2015)
The Ramaditas archaeological site in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile provides evidence for cultural adaptations during wetter environmental conditions in an otherwise arid environment. From 2.0 – 2.5 kyr B.P., regional population increased and a cultural shift toward agricultural based communities occurred. Tree samples collected from the site provide a high-resolution record of increased water availability as recorded by tree ring oxygen and carbon isotopes. Prosopis tamarugo logs from...
Using Traditional and Nontraditional Isotopic Tracers of Diet and Mobility of Brazilian Shell Mound Populations (ca. 8000–1000 years BP) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of shell mounds can shed light on human occupation and adaptations at coastal environments worldwide. In South America, human groups occupied the territory close to the Atlantic Ocean for millennium (ca. 8000 to ⁓1000 years BP), building hundreds of shell mounds, some with impressive dimensions. After 2000 BP, it is assumed that these populations...
Village Aggregation and Native Subsistence Practices at a Middle Woodland Mound Center, Gulf Coast Florida, USA (2018)
Current research at Garden Patch (8DI4), a Middle Woodland mound center with circular village construction in northern peninsular Gulf Coast Florida, provide quantitative insights into the timing and temporality of monument construction and village aggregation. Here, we combine previously modelled radiocarbon assays with new isotopic data on season of collection and habitat of exploitation. The four-phase model of site occupation when combined with the new isotopic data provide new insights into...
Yes, You Ken! A Guide to Creating Your Own Water Isotope Baseline (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How many water samples are Kenough? If you are Ken-fused about how to make your own, robust isotopic reference dataset for archaeological questions, this poster is for you. My job is baseline. At the beach, in the mountains––and everything in between. This poster reflects seven years of Ken-curious environmental isotopic sampling in the western Central...