Bone Chemistry at Cerro Oreja: A Stable Isotope Perspective on the Development of a Regional Economy in the Moche Valley, Peru During the Early Intermediate Period

Abstract In this paper we test the hypothesis that an intensification of maize production preceded the development of a regional Moche political economy in the Moche Valley of north coastal Peru during the Early Intermediate period (400 B.C.—A.D. 600). To do so we analyze stable isotopic signatures of 48 bone apatite and 17 tooth enamel samples from human remains recovered from the site of Cerro Oreja, a large urban and ceremonial center in the Moche Valley. These remains date to the Guañape, Salinar, or Gallinazo phases and provide a diachronic picture of subsistence before the appearance of the Southern Moche state. The most notable patterns identified in the study include a lack of significant change in δ 13 C apatite values from the Guañape to Satinar phases, followed by a significant enrichment in δ 13 C apatite values from the Salinar to Gallinazo phases. Several lines of evidence, including archaeological context, dental data, and comparative carbon stable isotope data from experimental animal studies and studies of archaeological human remains support the interpretation that the observed 13 C enrichment in stable isotope values in the Gallinazo phase primarily reflects maize intensification. The stable isotope data from Cerro Oreja thus suggest that a shift in subsistence toward a highly productive and storable crop may have served as an important precursor to state development during the Early Intermediate period in the Moche Valley

Integrating isotopes and documentary evidence : dietary patterns in a late medieval and early modern mining community, Sweden

We would like to thank the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, Sweden and the Tandem Laboratory (Ångström Laboratory), Uppsala University, Sweden, for undertaking the analyses of stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes in both human and animal collagen samples. Also, thanks to Elin Ahlin Sundman for providing the δ13C and δ15N values for animal references from Västerås. This research (Bäckström’s PhD employment at Lund University, Sweden) was supported by the Berit Wallenberg Foundation (BWS 2010.0176) and Jakob and Johan Söderberg’s foundation. The ‘Sala project’ (excavations and analyses) has been funded by Riksens Clenodium, Jernkontoret, Birgit and Gad Rausing’s Foundation, SAU’s Research Foundation, the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, Berit Wallenbergs Foundation, Åke Wibergs Foundation, Lars Hiertas Memory, Helge Ax:son Johnson’s Foundation and The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Comportements alimentaires de trois populations médiévales belges: apports de la biogéochimie isotopique

Polet Caroline, Katzenberg M. Anne. Comportements alimentaires de trois populations médiévales belges: apports de la biogéochimie isotopique. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 80, fasc. 4, 2002. Histoire medievale, moderne et contemporaine - Middeleeuwse. moderne en hedendaagse geschiedenis. pp. 1371-1390

Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia

Interpretations of dog burials made by ancient foraging groups have tended to be based upon our own relationships with such animals and modern western cosmological and ontological concepts. Osteological studies of early dogs often focus only on issues of taxonomy, and as a result very little is known about these animals' life histories. Eastern Siberia has produced many Holocene dog burials, but these are typically not well described and the explanatory frameworks provided for them are very underdeveloped. Here we examine in detail two Cis-Baikal canid burials, one of a wolf and the other a dog, both in large Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemeteries. We link the mortuary treatment of these animals to other cultural practices, particularly the treatment of the human dead, and broader patterns in Northern human-animal relationships. This interpretive model is combined with detailed osteobiographies for the canids and contextual information for these and other dogs and wolves from Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal. It is argued that canids here were understood and treated in a variety of ways. We suggest that some animals with unique histories were known as distinct persons with 'souls' and because of this at death required mortuary rites similar to those of their human counterparts. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.Peer Reviewe

Data from: Alloparenting is associated with reduced maternal lactation effort and faster weaning in wild chimpanzees

Alloparenting, when individuals other than the mother assist with infant care, can vary between and within populations and has potential fitness costs and benefits for individuals involved. We investigated the effects of alloparenting on the speed with which infants were weaned, a potential component of maternal fitness because of how it can affect inter-birth intervals, in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Ngogo, Uganda. We also provide, to our knowledge, the first description of alloparenting in this population and present a novel measure of the contribution of milk to infant diets through faecal stable nitrogen isotopes (δ15N). Using 42 mother–infant pairs, we tested associations of two alloparenting dimensions, natal attraction (interest in infants) and infant handling (holding, carrying), to the proportion of time mothers spent feeding and to maternal lactation effort (mean nursing rates and mother–infant δ15N differences). Neither natal attraction nor infant handling was significantly associated with feeding time. Infant handling was inversely associated with both measures of lactation effort, although natal attraction showed no association. Alloparenting may benefit mothers by enabling females to invest in their next offspring sooner through accelerated weaning. Our findings emphasize the significance of alloparenting as a flexible component of female reproductive strategies in some species

Badescuetal-GEE-Spreadsheet

These are the data on which we ran all of the Generalized Estimating Equations analyses, to see how natal attraction and infant handling correlated with nursing rates, maternal feeding time, stable nitrogen isotope difference, maternal parity, infant age, and infant sex