Isotopic Evidence for Long-Distance Connections of the AD Thirteenth-Century Promontory Caves Occupants

The Promontory caves (Utah) and Franktown Cave (Colorado) contain high-fidelity records of short-term occupations by groups with material culture connections to the Subarctic/Northern Plains. This research uses Promontory and Franktown bison dung, hair, hide, and bone collagen to establish local baseline carbon isotopic variability and identify leather from a distant source. The ankle wrap of one Promontory Cave 1 moccasin had a δ13C value that indicates a substantial C4 component to the animal's diet, unlike the C3 diets inferred from 171 other Promontory and northern Utah bison samples. We draw on a unique combination of multitissue isotopic analysis, carbon isoscapes, ancient DNA (species and sex identification), tissue turnover rates, archaeological contexts, and bison ecology to show that the high δ13C value was not likely a result of local plant consumption, bison mobility, or trade. Instead, the bison hide was likely acquired via long-distance travel to/from an area of abundant C4 grasses far to the south or east. Expansive landscape knowledge gained through long-distance associations would have allowed Promontory caves inhabitants to make well-informed decisions about directions and routes of movement for a territorial shift, which seems to have occurred in the late thirteenth century.

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Bone collagen stable isotope analysis of a Bronze Age site of Liushugou and its implication for subsistence strategy in arid northwest China

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620970259 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 095968362097025

Author(s):

Weimiao Dong ◽

Cheng-Bang An ◽

Yongqiang Wang ◽

Wanglin Hu ◽

Jie Zhang

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Isotope Analysis ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

Northwest China ◽

Bone Collagen ◽

Human Populations ◽

Subsistence Strategy ◽

Subsistence Strategies ◽

Eastern Tianshan ◽

Carbon Isotopic

Several studies have revealed the subsistence strategies of Bronze Age people along Eastern Tianshan Mountains. However, all the previously revolved sites were permanent settlements. How people survived in arid harsh mountainous environment facing source scarcity during Bronze Age in the inner Asia is far beyond clear. This study focuses on bone carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic analysis of both human and faunal assemblage exhumed from Liushugou site, integrated with marcobotanical result and radiocarbon data to reveal human diets and subsistence strategy of this Bronze Age community. Stable carbon isotopic analysis of human bones (−19.1‰ to −17.2‰, −18.1 ± 0.4‰, n = 46) and macrobotanical results (barley) consistently indicating a nearly pure C3 based plants food intake. High δ15N values of the majority people (12.4‰ to 15.1‰, 13.4 ± 0.5‰, n = 44) point to heavy animal protein consumption. No detectable isotopic composition was observed between omnivores (boar, −19.0‰ and −17.5‰, 8.2‰ and 8.7‰, n = 2) and large number of herbivores (−20.0‰ to −9.7‰, −18 ± 1.7‰; 5.5‰ to 13.4‰, 8.4 ± 1.7‰; n = 56). Compared to those sites along Eastern Tianshan Mts. whose diets included millets/barley/wheat, humans at Liushugou site barely consumed millets during their occupation (3500–2900 cal BP). The diverse subsistence strategies of human populations demonstrate the active adaptations to different environment along Eastern Tianshan Mts. during Bronze Age.

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Optimizing sample pretreatment for compound-specific stable carbon isotopic analysis of amino sugars in marine sediment

Biogeosciences ◽

10.5194/bg-11-4869-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (17) ◽

pp. 4869-4880 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

R. Zhu ◽

Y.-S. Lin ◽

J. S. Lipp ◽

T. B. Meador ◽

K.-U. Hinrichs

Keyword(s):

Marine Sediment ◽

Carbon Isotopic Composition ◽

Amino Sugar ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

Amino Sugars ◽

Stable Carbon ◽

Turnover Rates ◽

Organic Detritus ◽

Minimum Requirement ◽

Carbon Isotopic

Abstract. Amino sugars are quantitatively significant constituents of soil and marine sediment, but their sources and turnover in environmental samples remain poorly understood. The stable carbon isotopic composition of amino sugars can provide information on the lifestyles of their source organisms and can be monitored during incubations with labeled substrates to estimate the turnover rates of microbial populations. However, until now, such investigation has been carried out only with soil samples, partly because of the much lower abundance of amino sugars in marine environments. We therefore optimized a procedure for compound-specific isotopic analysis of amino sugars in marine sediment, employing gas chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The whole procedure consisted of hydrolysis, neutralization, enrichment, and derivatization of amino sugars. Except for the derivatization step, the protocol introduced negligible isotopic fractionation, and the minimum requirement of amino sugar for isotopic analysis was 20 ng, i.e., equivalent to ~8 ng of amino sugar carbon. Compound-specific stable carbon isotopic analysis of amino sugars obtained from marine sediment extracts indicated that glucosamine and galactosamine were mainly derived from organic detritus, whereas muramic acid showed isotopic imprints from indigenous bacterial activities. The δ13C analysis of amino sugars provides a valuable addition to the biomarker-based characterization of microbial metabolism in the deep marine biosphere, which so far has been lipid oriented and biased towards the detection of archaeal signals.

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Optimizing sample pretreatment for compound-specific stable carbon isotopic analysis of amino sugars in marine sediment

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-11-593-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 593-623

Author(s):

R. Zhu ◽

Y.-S. Lin ◽

J. S. Lipp ◽

T. B. Meador ◽

K.-U. Hinrichs

Keyword(s):

Marine Sediment ◽

Carbon Isotopic Composition ◽

Amino Sugar ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

Amino Sugars ◽

Stable Carbon ◽

Turnover Rates ◽

Organic Detritus ◽

Minimum Requirement ◽

Carbon Isotopic

Abstract. Amino sugars are quantitatively significant constituents of soil and marine sediment, but their sources and turnover in environmental samples remain poorly understood. The stable carbon isotopic composition of amino sugars can provide information on the lifestyles of their source organisms and can be monitored during incubations with labeled substrates to estimate the turnover rates of microbial populations. However, until now, such investigation has been carried out only with soil samples, partly because of the much lower abundance of amino sugars in marine environments. We therefore optimized a procedure for compound-specific isotopic analysis of amino sugars in marine sediment employing gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The whole procedure consisted of hydrolysis, neutralization, enrichment, and derivatization of amino sugars. Except for the derivatization step, the protocol introduced negligible isotopic fractionation, and the minimum requirement of amino sugar for isotopic analysis was 20 ng, i.e. equivalent to ~ 8 ng of amino sugar carbon. Our results obtained from δ13C analysis of amino sugars in selected marine sediment samples showed that muramic acid had isotopic imprints from indigenous bacterial activities, whereas glucosamine and galactosamine were mainly derived from organic detritus. The analysis of stable carbon isotopic compositions of amino sugars opens a promising window for the investigation of microbial metabolisms in marine sediments and the deep marine biosphere.

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A modern baseline for the paired isotopic analysis of skin and bone in terrestrial mammals

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.211587 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sean P. Doherty ◽

Matthew J. Collins ◽

Alison J. T. Harris ◽

Ainara Sistiaga ◽

Jason Newton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Histories ◽

Management Practices ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

Essential Amino Acids ◽

Bone Collagen ◽

Consistent Difference ◽

Turnover Rates ◽

Terrestrial Mammals ◽

Skin Collagen

We present the isotopic discrimination between paired skin and bone collagen from animals of known life history, providing a modern baseline for the interpretation of archaeological isotopic data. At present, the interpretation of inter-tissue variation (Δ (skin–bone) ) in mummified remains is based on comparisons with other archaeological material, which have attributed divergence to their contrasting turnover rates, with rapidly remodelling skin collagen incorporating alterations in environmental, cultural and physiological conditions in the months prior to death. While plausible, the lack of baseline data from individuals with known life histories has hindered evaluation of the explanations presented. Our analysis of a range of animals raised under a variety of management practices showed a population-wide trend for skin collagen to be depleted in 13 C by –0.7‰ and enriched in 15 N by +1.0‰ relative to bone collagen, even in stillborn animals. These results are intriguing and difficult to explain using current knowledge; however, on the basis of the findings reported here, we caution any results which interpret simply on differing turnover rates. We hypothesize that there may be a consistent difference in the routing of dietary protein and lipids between skin and bone, with potentially on-site synthesis of non-essential amino acids using carbon and nitrogen that have been sourced via different biochemical pathways.

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Re-evaluating Scythian lifeways: Isotopic analysis of diet and mobility in Iron Age Ukraine

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0245996 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0245996

Author(s):

Alicia R. Ventresca Miller ◽

James Johnson ◽

Sergey Makhortykh ◽

Claudia Gerling ◽

Ludmilla Litvinova ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Isotope ◽

Iron Age ◽

Tooth Enamel ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

Bone Collagen ◽

Human Tooth ◽

Forest Steppe ◽

Long Distance ◽

Isotope Data

The Scythians are frequently presented, in popular and academic thought alike, as highly mobile warrior nomads who posed a great economic risk to growing Mediterranean empires from the Iron Age into the Classical period. Archaeological studies provide evidence of first millennium BCE urbanism in the steppe while historical texts reference steppe agriculture, challenging traditional characterizations of Scythians as nomads. However, there have been few direct studies of the diet and mobility of populations living in the Pontic steppe and forest-steppe during the Scythian era. Here, we analyse strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope data from human tooth enamel samples, as well as nitrogen and carbon isotope data of bone collagen, at several Iron Age sites across Ukraine commonly associated with ‘Scythian’ era communities. Our multi-isotopic approach demonstrates generally low levels of human mobility in the vicinity of urban locales, where populations engaged in agro-pastoralism focused primarily on millet agriculture. Some individuals show evidence for long-distance mobility, likely associated with significant inter-regional connections. We argue that this pattern supports economic diversity of urban locales and complex trading networks, rather than a homogeneous nomadic population.

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The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/laq.2021.56 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Christina Torres-Rouff ◽

Gonzalo Pimentel ◽

William J. Pestle ◽

Mariana Ugarte ◽

Kelly J. Knudson

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Social Relations ◽

Life Experience ◽

Formative Period ◽

Northern Chile ◽

Long Distance ◽

Life And Death ◽

Interregional Interaction ◽

Intercultural Identity ◽

Late Formative

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

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Radiocarbon Dating and Dietary Stable Isotope Analysis of Kwaday Dän Ts'inchí

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/25470442 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 72 (4) ◽

pp. 719-734 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Michael P. Richards ◽

Sheila Greer ◽

Lorna T. Corr ◽

Owen Beattie ◽

Alexander Mackie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Isotope Analysis ◽

Human Remains ◽

Isotopic Analysis ◽

High Elevation ◽

Bone Collagen ◽

Contact Period ◽

European Contact ◽

Ams Dating ◽

The Individual

We report here on the results of AMS dating and isotopic analysis of the frozen human remains named Kwaday Dän Ts'inchí and associated materials recovered from a glacier located in Northwest British Columbia, Canada in 1999. The isotopic analysis of bone collagen (bulk and single amino acids) from the individual indicates a strongly marine diet, which was unexpected given the location of this find, more than 100 km inland eroding out of a high elevation glacier; however, bulk hair and bone cholesterol isotopic values indicate a shift in diet to include more terrestrial foods in the year before death. The radiocarbon dating is not straightforward, as there are difficulties in determining the appropriate marine correction for the human remains, and the spread of dates on the associated artifacts clearly indicates that this was not a single use site. By combining the most recent date on a robe worn by Kwaday Dän Ts'inchi with direct bone collagen dates we conclude that the individual likely dates to between cal A.D. 1670 to 1850, which is in the pre-(or early) European contact period for this region.

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