An Investigation of Dietary Histories and Skeletal Health in a Muisca Population (950-1350 AD, Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia)

Summary

Highly stratified societies are characterized by differentiation between groups along various socially defined axes. The Tibanica community (950-1350 AD), part of the Muisca culture from the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, is an ideal population to study how social roles and identities are intertwined with human diet and skeletal health. Here we present stable isotope data to investigate the complexity of human diets across the life course by comparing childhood diets to adulthood diets for the same individuals in order to understand how access to particular foods may be mediated by age, sex, and social status variables. Additionally, we report an indicator of metabolic stress quantified through the measurement of cortical bone. The development, maintenance, and loss of bone may be tied to both biological factors (i.e. hormones, etc.) and social experiences (physical activity, diet/nutrition, etc.). Through the combination of these data sets we can also investigate the complex relationships between diet (nutrition) and skeletal health (bone maintenance or loss).

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Recent Doctoral Research on Colombian Archaeology

Keywords

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