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

Summary

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 variations in human diet and subsistence. Overall data suggest a mixed diet (including marine and terrestrial protein), but inter-individual isotopic variations suggest intra-group differences in the consumption of higher trophic level foods. The analysis of longer strands of hair, permitting the reconstruction of time-series dietary information, indicates both seasonal dietary homogeneity and heterogeneity amongst different individuals. The implications for our understanding of geographical, temporal and socio-cultural complexity in pre-contact Arctic subsistence will be explored.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Human-Environment Interactions & Human Ecology in Western Arctic Prehistory

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