Expanding Individual Life Histories to Large-Scale Dietary Comparisons of Early Neolithic Cemetery Populations at Lokomotiv and Shamanka II, Cis-Baikla, Siberia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Reconstructing individual life histories using bio- and geochemical proxy records from 3-molar sequences of incremental dentin has elucidated a surprising degree of interpersonal variability amongst Early Neolithic populations in southwestern Cis-Baikal, Siberia. Previous investigations have also revealed notable differences in mortuary and dietary trends between large cemeteries on the coast of Lake Baikal (Shamanka II) and further downstream the Angara River (Lokomotiv). Examining the frequency and amplitude of shifts in isotopic data (13C, 15N) in tandem with dietary reconstructions using FRUITS for arbitrary 18-month snapshots of individuals’ lives permits investigation of age-specific dietary trends and helps to bridge individual- and group-level subsistence activities. Previous isotopic data have indicated protein-heavy diets that were characterized by increasing fish consumption as well as increased weaning duration through time. Particularly noteworthy are multi-annual patterns that do not fit well with routine seasonal rounds and could represent storage procedures invisible in the archaeological records of habitation sites. While present in select individuals, such patterns are not consistent in composition or frequency throughout the population, suggesting fluctuations in resource productivity forcing variability in diet-breadth subsistence strategies. This comparison of large cemeteries examines the geographic relations between cemetery locations and population life histories.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35740.0