Stable Isotope Perspectives on Diet and Mobility in the California Delta

Summary

Isotopic variation in individuals allows us to track differences in diet, mobility, and migration between various demographic categories including age, status, and sex. We use stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to analyze diet and oxygen to examine human mobility from a range of sites in Yolo and Solano counties, with a focus on how marine vs. freshwater aquatic resources were exploited. Stable isotope results are compared to faunal remains from the same sites to establish baseline data for interpreting human diet and mobility patterns. Preliminary isotopic results show significant heterogeneity among individuals in regard to access to high trophic-level marine protein. Anadromous fish such as salmon and sturgeon are presumably the primary contributors to high trophic level marine protein, though residential shifts or logistical mobility to coastal locations is also possible. Heterogeneity in aquatic resource use has important implications for understanding food procurement and fishing practices in the California Delta.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancestral Native American Archaeology of the San Francisco Bay Area   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage