Feasting and mobility in Iron Age Ireland: multi-isotope analysis reveals the vast catchment of Navan Fort, Ulster

Navan Fort is an iconic prehistoric Irish ceremonial centre and the legendary capital of Ulster. The fort has produced an exceptional pig-dominated faunal assemblage that also contained a barbary macaque skull. Dating from the 4th to 1st century BC, it is likely to be a ceremonial feasting centre that may have drawn people and their animals from across Ulster and beyond. This study uses a multi-isotope (87Sr/86Sr, δ34S, δ13C, δ15N) approach to identify non-local animals and reconstruct site catchment. New biosphere mapping means that isotope data can be more confidently interpreted and the combination of strontium and sulphur analysis has the potential to estimate origins. In the absence of human remains, fauna provide the best proxy for human movement. Results for the 35 analysed animals are wide-ranging, especially in terms of strontium (0.707–0.715), which has the largest range for an Irish site. Sulphur values are more restricted (13.1‰−17.1‰) but are high in the context of British and Irish data. Results provide clear evidence for animals (and thus people) coming from across Ulster and beyond, demonstrating the site’s wide catchment. Navan Fort was clearly a major ceremonial centre with far-reaching influence and hosted feasts that drew people and animals from afar

Feeding the Roman army in Britain

How did the Roman Empire supply and maintain its frontier garrisons? What was the impact on populations and landscapes of conquered territories? The Feeding the Roman Army in Britain project will answer these questions by establishing how soldiers were provisioned and how frontiers operated as economic as well as militarised zones

Feeding the Roman Army in Britain

How did the Roman Empire supply and maintain its frontier garrisons? What was the impact on populations and landscapes of conquered territories? The Feeding the Roman Army in Britain project will answer these questions by establishing how soldiers were provisioned and how frontiers operated as economic as well as militarised zones

An early Cambrian greenhouse climate

The oceans of the early Cambrian (~541 to 509 million years ago) were the setting for a marked diversification of animal life. However, sea temperatures — a key component of the early Cambrian marine environment — remain unconstrained, in part because of a substantial time gap in the stable oxygen isotope (delta 18 O) record before the evolution of euconodonts. We show that previously overlooked sources of fossil biogenic phosphate have the potential to fill this gap. Pristine phosphatic microfossils from the Comley Limestones, UK, yield a robust delta 18 O signature, suggesting sea surface temperatures of 20° to 25°C at high southern paleolatitudes (~65°S to 70°S) between ~514 and 509 million years ago. These sea temperatures are consistent with the distribution of coeval evaporite and calcrete deposits, peak continental weathering rates, and also our climate model simulations for this interval. Our results support an early Cambrian greenhouse climate comparable to those of the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic, offering a framework for exploring the interplay between biotic and environmental controls on Cambrian animal diversification

Understanding Middle Neolithic food and farming in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site: an integrated approach

Little synthesis of evidence for Middle Neolithic food and farming in Wiltshire, particularly in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) has been possible, until now, due to a paucity of assemblages. The excavation of a cluster of five Middle Neolithic pits and an inhumation burial at West Amesbury Farm (WAF) has prompted a review of our understanding of pit sites of this period from the county. Bioarchaeological assemblages are used to investigate evidence for the consumption of animal and plant-based foods, and for agricultural and pastoral farming. For the first time Middle Neolithic zooarchaeological evidence, including strontium isotope data, is considered alongside archaeobotanical data, and radiocarbon dating. The absence of cultivated plants from WAF and contemporary sites in the county is consistent with the hypothesis that the reduction in cereal cultivation and greater reliance of wild plants witnessed in the later part of the Neolithic in southern England began in the Middle Neolithic. The zooarchaeological evidence from the same sites demonstrates that the shift away from cereal cultivation may be concurrent with, rather than earlier than, an increase in the relative proportion of deposited pig bones relative to cattle. Both cattle and pigs deposited in pits at WAF have strontium and sulphur isotope values consistent with the local biosphere, and therefore were potentially raised in the area. Zooarchaeological data from WAF compliments that from human dental calculus and lipid residues in associated Peterborough Ware pottery that local cattle husbandry included exploitation of dairy. It also highlights the presence of consistent food preparation methods between pits as seen through butchery practice. The faunal and archaeobotanical remains from contemporary pit deposits suggest that similar farming and subsistence strategies can be proposed across the county, though with some inter-site variation in deposition. Together these excavated pit sites are likely to represent only a sample of those present in the area. Application of a similar integrated approach to material from other Middle Neolithic pits holds potential for better understanding of food and farming in this previously neglected period

The origins of nomadic pastoralism in the eastern Jordanian steppe: a combined stable isotope and chipped stone assessment

The circumstances in which domestic animals were first introduced to the arid regions of the southern Levant and the origins of nomadic pastoralism have been the subject of considerable debate. Nomadic pastoralism was a novel herd management practice with implications for the economic, social and cultural development of Neolithic communities inhabiting steppe and early village environs. Combining faunal stable isotope and chipped stone analyses from the eastern Jordanian Neolithic steppic sites of Wadi Jilat 13 and 25, and ‘Ain Ghazal in the Mediterranean agricultural zone of the Levantine Corridor, we provide a unique picture of the groups exploiting the arid areas

The relationship between the phosphate and structural carbonate fractionation of fallow deer bioapatite in tooth enamel

The species‐specific relationship between phosphate (δ18OP values) and structural carbonate (δ18OC values) oxygen isotope ratios has been established for several modern and fossil animal species but until now it has not been investigated in European fallow deer (Dama dama dama). This study describes the relationship between phosphate and structural carbonate bioapatite in tooth enamel of extant fallow deer, which will help us further understand the species' unique environmental and cultural history. Methods The oxygen isotope composition of phosphate (δ18OP value) and structural carbonate (δ18OC value) of hydroxylapatite was determined in 51 modern fallow deer tooth enamel samples from across Europe and West Asia. The δ18OC values were measured on a GV IsoPrime dual‐inlet mass spectrometer and the δ18OP values on a temperature‐controlled elemental analyser (TC/EA) coupled to a DeltaPlus XL isotope ratio mass spectrometer via a ConFlo III interface. Results This study establishes a direct and linear relationship between the δ18OC and δ18OP values from fallow deer tooth enamel (δ18OC = +9.244(±0.216) + 0.958 * δ18OP (±0.013)). Despite the successful regression, the variation in δ18O values from samples collected in the same geographical area is greater than expected, although the results cluster in broad climatic groupings when Koppen‐Geiger classifications are taken into account for the individuals' locations. Conclusions This is the first comprehensive study of the relationship between ionic forms of oxygen (phosphate oxygen and structural carbonate) in fallow deer dental enamel. The new equation will allow direct comparison with other herbivore data. Variable δ18O values within populations of fallow deer broadly reflect the ecological zones they are found in which may explain this pattern of results in other euryphagic species

Environmental change over the last millennium recorded in two contrasting crater lakes in western Uganda, eastern Africa (Lakes Kasenda and Wandakara)

The last millennium is a key period for understanding environmental change in eastern Africa, as there is clear evidence of marked fluctuations in climate (effective moisture) that place modern concern with future climate change in a proper context, both in terms of environmental and societal impacts and responses. Here, we compare sediment records from two small, nearby, closed crater lakes in western Uganda (Lake Kasenda and Lake Wandakara), spanning the last 700 (Wandakara) and 1200 years (Kasenda) respectively. Multiproxy analyses of chemical sedimentary parameters (including C/N ratios, δ13C of bulk organic matter and δ13C and δ18O of authigenic carbonates) and biotic remains (diatoms, aquatic macrofossils, chironomids) suggest that Kasenda has been sensitive to climate over much of this period, and has shown substantial fluctuations in conductivity, while Wandakara has a more muted response, likely due to the increasing dominance of human activity as a driver of change within the lake and catchment over the length of our record. Evidence from both records, however, supports the idea that lake levels were low from ∼AD 700–1000 AD, with increasing aridity from AD 1100–1600, and brief wet phases around AD 1000 and 1400. Wetter conditions are recorded in the 1700s, but drought returned by the end of the century and into the early 1800s, becoming wetter again from the mid-1800s. Comparison with other records across eastern Africa suggests that while some events are widespread (e.g. aridity beginning ∼ AD 1100), at other times there is a more complex spatial signature (e.g. in the 1200s to 1300s, and from the 1400s to 1600s). This study highlights the important role of catchment-specific factors (e.g. lakemorphometry, catchment size, and human impact) in modulating the sensitivity of proxies, and lake records, as indicators of environmental change, and potential hazards when regional inference is based on a single site or proxy

δ18O-inferred salinity from Littorina littorea (L.) gastropods in a Danish shell midden at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition

Norsminde Fjord has received extensive geoarchaeological investigation, hosting one of the classic Stone Age shell midden sites in Denmark, and one of the best examples of the widespread oyster decline at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. Here, intra-shell δ18O (and δ13C) analyses from the common periwinkle Littorina littorea (L.) are used to infer inter-annual environmental changes at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition (four from each period). This study utilises a modern δ18O L. littorea-salinity training set previously developed for the Limfjord, Denmark to quantify winter salinity. δ18O values range between +1.6% and +4.0% in the late Mesolithic and ‒6.3% to +2.0% in the early Neolithic. Using maximum δ18O values, winter salinity at the known temperature of growth cessation in L. littorea (i.e. +3.7 ± 1°C) for the first annual cycle of each shell ranges between 25.5 and 26.8 psu (standard deviation (SD): 0.56) for the late Mesolithic, with an average salinity of 26.1 psu. Early-Neolithic shells range between 19.4 and 28.2 psu (SD: 4.59) with an average salinity of 23.7 psu. No statistically significant change in salinity occurs between the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic. This result supports recent diatom/mollusc-based inferences that salinity was not the sole cause of the oyster decline, although some evidence is presented here for more variable seasonal salinity conditions in the early Neolithic, which (along sedimentary change and temperature deterioration) might have increased stress on oyster populations in some years. It is recommended here that for robust palaeoenvironmental inferences, where possible, multiple specimens should be used from the same time period in conjunction with multiproxy data

Dietary seasonal variations in the Medieval Nubian population of Kulubnarti as indicated by the stable isotope composition of hair

Objectives The island of Kulubnarti is located in Sudanese Nubia and contains two cemeteries, named R and S, which are dated to AD 550–800. In order to provide more detailed dietary information for this population and examine seasonality of diet, we analyzed the carbon isotope composition of hair samples from both cemeteries. Materials and methods Forty seven separate hair samples from 8 adults, 29 adolescents, 7 infants and 3 individuals with unknown age were analyzed. Long hair samples were cut transversely and divided into 2 cm longitudinal segments, to examine temporal variations in the dietary carbon sources. Results The average carbon isotope value for the whole population was −17.95‰ (SD = 1.8). A significant difference between the two cemeteries was found with variances in the amount of C4 dietary carbon sources consumed. Discussion The results of hair isotope compositions concur with previous soft tissue investigations of Kulubnarti population which suggested that the dietary regimen contains a mix of C3 and C4 plant-based sources. A seasonal variation in diet can be inferred from the sequential hair segments of Kulubnarti individuals. These suggest a dietary transition between dominant C3 plant-based sources in winter to dominant C4 ones in summer with a small contribution of the non-harvested, alternative, crop