People and food: investigating the diet through isotopic analysis in a pre-colonial group from Piaçaguera shell mound (sambaqui), Brazil

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this study, we aim to present new evidence on the diet of pre-colonial individuals excavated in the Piaçaguera sambaqui (7,151-5,668 years cal. BP), one of the oldest shell mound found on the Brazilian coast. Previous isotopic analysis has shown that, although there is a general preference for consuming marine fish, there are regional variations in the diet of the groups excavated in sambaquis along the Brazilian coast during the Holocene. We conducted isotopic analyses of 13C and δ15N on collagen extracted from human (bone and dentine) and fauna (bone) remains from Piaçaguera. The dentin was divided into horizontal mini-slices (both in permanent and deciduous teeth), allowing for the evaluation of diet at various stages of childhood. The results indicate that at Piaçaguera, individuals had a preference for consuming marine fish but also consumed terrestrial animals to a significant extent. Additionally, there is a slight variation in diet when separating the individuals into two groups based on the site's planistratigraphy. During childhood, the study found no significant variations in weaning ages, which typically occur around four years old; the post-weaning diet is similar to that of adults, and some individuals may experience periods of catabolic stress during prepubertal ages.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39902.0