Radiocarbon and Stable Isotope Evidence of Dietary Change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates: New Results from Lepenski Vir

A previous radiocarbon dating and stable isotope study of directly associated ungulate and human bone samples from Late Mesolithic burials at Schela Cladovei in Romania established that there is a freshwater reservoir effect of approximately 500 yr in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube River valley in southeast Europe. Using the δ15N values as an indicator of the percentage of freshwater protein in the human diet, the 14C data for 24 skeletons from the site of Lepenski Vir were corrected for this reservoir effect. The results of the paired 14C and stable isotope measurements provide evidence of substantial dietary change over the period from about 9000 BP to about 300 BP. The data from the Early Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic are consistent with a 2-component dietary system, where the linear plot of isotopic values reflects mixing between the 2 end-members to differing degrees. Typically, the individuals of Mesolithic age have much heavier δ15N signals and slightly heavier δ13C, while individuals of Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic age have lighter δ15N and δ13C values. Contrary to our earlier suggestion, there is no evidence of a substantial population that had a transitional diet midway between those that were characteristic of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, several individuals with “Final Mesolithic” 14C ages show δ15N and δ13C values that are similar to the Neolithic dietary pattern. Provisionally, these are interpreted either as incomers who originated in early farming communities outside the Iron Gates region or as indigenous individuals representing the earliest Neolithic of the Iron Gates. The results from Roman and Medieval age burials show a deviation from the linear function, suggesting the presence of a new major dietary component containing isotopically heavier carbon. This is interpreted as a consequence of the introduction of millet into the human food chain.

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The freshwater reservoir effect in northern West Siberia: 14C and stable isotope data for fish from the late medieval town of Mangazeya

Quaternary Geochronology ◽

10.1016/j.quageo.2020.101109 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 60 ◽

pp. 101109

Author(s):

Yaroslav V. Kuzmin ◽

Pavel A. Kosintsev ◽

Mathieu Boudin ◽

Elya P. Zazovskaya

Keyword(s):

Stable Isotope ◽

West Siberia ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Reservoir Effect ◽

Isotope Data ◽

Freshwater Reservoir ◽

Stable Isotope Data

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ASSESSMENT OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HISTORIC DANUBE FLOODS

Proceedings of the XXVII Conference of the Danubian Countries on Hydrological Forecasting and Hydrological Bases of Water Management ◽

10.15407/uhmi.conference.01.05 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Stevan Prohaska ◽

◽

Aleksandra Ilić ◽

Pavla Pekarova ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Linear Trend ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Danube River ◽

Exceedance Probability ◽

Simultaneous Occurrence ◽

Flood Wave ◽

Probability Of Occurrence ◽

Comprehensive Method ◽

Flood Hydrograph

Data on historic floods along the Danube River exist since the year 1012. In the Middle Ages, floods were estimated based on historical documents, including original handwritten notes, newspaper articles, chronicles, formal letters, books, maps and photographs. From 1500 until the beginning of organized water regime observations, floods were hydraulically reconstructed based on water marks on old buildings in cities along the Danube (Passau, Melk, Emmersdorf an der Donau, Spilz, Schonbuhen and Bratislava). The paper presents a procedure for assessing the statistical significance of registered historic floods using a comprehensive method for defining theoretical flood hydrographs at hydrological stations. The approach is based on correlation analysis of two basic flood hydrograph parameters – maximum hydrograph ordinate (peak) and flood wave volume. The PROIL model is used to define the probability of simultaneous occurrence of these parameters. It defines the exceedance probability of two random variables, in the specific case two hydrograph parameters of the form: P{Qmax more equal to qmax,p)∩(Wmax more equal to wmax,p)} = P (1) where: Qmax – maximum hydrograph ordinate (peak); qmax,p – maximum discharge of the probability of occurrence p; Wmax – maximum hydrograph volume; wmax,p – maximum flood wave volume of the probability of occurrence p; P – exceedance probability. Spatial positions of the lines of exceedance of two flood hydrograph parameters and the empirical points of the corresponding parameters of the considered historic flood in the correlation field Qmax - Wmax, allow direct assessment of the exceedance probability of a historic flood, or its statistical significance. The proposed procedure was applied in practice to assess the statistical significance of the biggest floods registered along the Danube in the sector from its mouth to the Djerdap 1 Dam. The linear trend in the time-series of maximum annual flows at a representative hydrological station and the frequency of historic floods in the considered sector of the Danube are discussed at the end of the paper.

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A STABLE ISOTOPE STUDY OF THE DIETS OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY MEMBERS

10.1130/abs/2018am-322831 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nicholas D. Udy ◽

◽

Serena Smith ◽

McKenzie M. Ranney ◽

Michael Andrews ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stable Isotope ◽

Community Members ◽

Isotope Study ◽

Stable Isotope Study ◽

University Community

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6600–6000 cal BC Abrupt Climate Change and Neolithic Dispersal from West Asia

10.1093/oso/9780199329199.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bernhard Weninger ◽

Lee Clare

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Abrupt Climate Change ◽

Western Anatolia ◽

Southeast Europe ◽

The Balkans ◽

Farming Communities ◽

Anatolian Plateau ◽

Decadal Scale ◽

Early Farming ◽

New Hypothesis

Recent advances in palaeoclimatological and meteorological research, combined with new radiocarbon data from western Anatolia and southeast Europe, lead us to formulate a new hypothesis for the temporal and spatial dispersal of Neolithic lifeways from their core areas of genesis. The new hypothesis, which we term the Abrupt Climate Change (ACC) Neolithization Model, incorporates a number of insights from modern vulnerability theory. We focus here on the Late Neolithic (Anatolian terminology), which is followed in the Balkans by the Early Neolithic (European terminology). From high-resolution 14C-case studies, we infer an initial (very rapid) west-directed movement of early farming communities out of the Central Anatolian Plateau towards the Turkish Aegean littoral. This move is exactly in phase (decadal scale) with the onset of ACC conditions (~6600 cal BC). Upon reaching the Aegean coastline, Neolithic dispersal comes to a halt. It is not until some 500 years later—that is, at the close of cumulative ACC and 8.2 ka cal BP Hudson Bay cold conditions—that there occurs a second abrupt movement of farming communities into Southeast Europe, as far as the Pannonian Basin. The spread of early farming from Anatolia into eastern Central Europe is best explained as Neolithic communities’ mitigation of biophysical and social vulnerability to natural (climate-induced) hazards.

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