A Preliminary Multi-isotope Assessment of Precolumbian Humans from Panama

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study presents data on the first multi-isotope analysis of precolombian humans in Panama. We use carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), oxygen (δ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopes to determine the diets and mobility patterns of individuals from seven archaeological sites: Cerro Mangote, Sitio Sierra, and Cerro Juan Díaz in central Pacific Panama; Cerro Brujo and Sitio Drago along Panama’s northwest Caribbean coast; Jicarita Island in the Gulf of Chiriquí; and Pedro González Island in the Gulf of Panama. Our initial hypotheses were that individuals from coastal settlements would consume more marine resources than those from inland settlements, that dependency on maize in the diet would increase over time, and that there would be little evidence for mobility. Generally, the results did not support these hypotheses, with the inland community of Cerro Juan Díaz regularly consuming marine food, maize consumption being variable over time at different sites, and evidence of nonlocal individuals appearing at multiple sites, including one possible case of an individual who had been moved after death. These results emphasize the complex nature of human activities and the value of incorporating multiple lines of archaeological, osteological, geochemical, and ecological evidence for interpreting bioarchaeological data.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32189