Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Agro-Pastoral Diets at Shimao, Northern Shaanxi Province, China: Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis of Human and Faunal Remains

Summary

The late Neolithic to early Bronze Age period (ca. 2800 BC–1900 BC) in the Ordos Region, Northern China was a transitional period, that included the adoption of agro-pastoralism, as well as increasing sociopolitical complexity. Subsistence economies were shaped by a variety of strategies that included a mixed agro- pastoral system focused on millet cultivation and herding of caprines and cattle, with limited contributions from hunting and gathering of wild plants. Here in this study we report the carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and nitrogen amino acid isotope analyses results for the dietary reconstruction of agro-pastoralists at the Shimao site in Shaanxi Province, China. Bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic results of humans and animals are used as proxies of diet and local environment, and the local food web, that may also indicate differences in herding and management practices between different domesticated species. Results demonstrate that the majority of humans and domestic pigs were fed with substantial amounts of millets or their byproducts. The domestic herbivores, sheep and cattle, showed different dietary characteristics in that the former likely were foddered with C3 plants or grazed upon the local environment, while the latter species were fed with larger amounts of C4 products.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22262