Stable isotopes reveal dietary shifts associated with social change in Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique Knossos

Knossos was an important city on Crete and within Mediterranean networks in terms of trade and political status, though its status differed throughout the Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique periods. This paper uses stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to consider whether people at Knossos had differential diets due to the social, political, cultural, and economic changes across this time frame, factoring in age, sex and social status. Samples of human bone were selected to represent this range of time periods and variables. In this initial study, a small but insignificant increase in δ13C values was observed between the Hellenistic and Roman periods and there was a significant increase in δ15N values for the Late Antique period. No relationship between δ13C or δ15N and age was observed and while the female and male means were similar, the females had wider ranging values. No significant differences were detected by social status as represented by tomb type but there were small sample sizes for several of the tomb types. The results indicated a C3 terrestrial diet with meat or other animal products included for most individuals. The slight increase in δ13C values in the Roman period may represent either the introduction of a small amount of C4 plant or marine food, or very low trophic level marine foods into some Roman diets. The higher δ13C and, in particular, δ15N values observed in the Late Antique samples, suggests an increased consumption of seafood, potentially linked to Christian dietary practices or advances in fishing technologies and preservation techniques. The wider spread values of females compared to males, indicating a more varied diet, could have resulted from differential participation in religious institutions connected to food or may have been caused by greater nutritional stress in females in relation to pregnancy and reproductive issues. This study does not show a pattern of higher animal protein consumption in times of economic and cultural growth and prosperity but differences were detected between the different time periods in connection with the concurrent socio-economic changes

Changing environment at the Late Upper Palaeolithic ite of Lynx Cave, North Wales

Lynx Cave is one of a handful of locations in North Wales that provide evidence of Late Upper Palaeolithic huntergatherers at the end of the last ice-age. With the region being recolonized at a time of rapid environmental change there is a need to develop on-site palaeoenvironmental records that are directly linked to the archaeology in order to further understanding of the environments and landscapes that these hunter-gatherer groups experienced. Through carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) stable isotope analysis of animal bones we explore the environmental conditions during the human occupation of Lynx Cave. Analysis of the data indicates the faunal isotope results cluster into three distinct groupings, which when considered in light of the species composition, radiocarbon dates, sample layer provenance and known temporal patterns in herbivore isotope data from Northern Europe, are likely to relate to GI-1cba (the Allerød period) around 13,700-13,000 cal BP, GI-1cba/GS-1 (the Late Allerød/ early Younger Dryas period) around 13,100-12,800 cal BP, and the Bronze Age. The isotope data indicates that the Late Upper Palaeolithic or Late Palaeolithic occupations occurred in an open landscape in which soils were undergoing changing hydrological conditions linked to ice sheet melt and permafrost thaw process and subsequent recovery. The evidence of butchery marks on the faunal remains from both Late Glacial isotope clusters, along with the disparate radiocarbon dates and the presence of three hearths, support the idea of very short-term episodic use of the cave over an extended time period

Radiocarbon chronology and environmental context of Last Glacial Maximum human occupation in Switzerland

Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was dominated by polar desert and steppe-tundra biomes. Despite this, a human presence during this time period is evident at several locations across the region, including in Switzerland, less than 50 km from the Alpine ice sheet margin. It has been hypothesised that such human activity may have been restricted to brief periods of climatic warming within the LGM, but chronological information from many of these sites are currently too poorly resolved to corroborate this. Here we present a revised chronology of LGM human occupation in Switzerland. AMS radiocarbon dating of cut-marked reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) bones from the sites of Kastelhöhle-Nord and Y-Höhle indicates human occupation of Switzerland was most likely restricted to between 23,400 and 22,800 cal. BP. This timeframe corresponds to Greenland Interstadial 2, a brief warming phase, supporting the hypothesis that human presence was facilitated by favourable climatic episodes. Carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope analysis of the fauna provides palaeoenvironmental information for this time period. These findings contribute to our understanding of human activity in ice-marginal environments and have implications for understanding cultural connections across central Europe during the LGM

Iso-Wetlands: unlocking wetland ecologies and agriculture in prehistory through sulfur isotopes

Iso-Wetlands is a new, NERC-funded collaborative research project involving researchers at UCL Institute of Archaeology, the University of Leeds and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The project is developing sulfur isotope analysis of archaeological plants and animals as a new tool for exploring hydrological conditions under which agricultural production was taking place. This development has the potential to improve understanding of water management strategies in the past, particularly in relation to seasonal floodwater agriculture and wetland agriculture (for example, rice paddy systems). The project will open wider possibilities for the use of sulfur isotopes in archaeology and ecology to examine wetland habitat use by both people and animals

Nitrogen palaeo-isoscapes: changing spatial gradients of faunal δ15N in late Pleistocene and early Holocene Europe

Nitrogen isotope ratio analysis (δ15N) of animal tissue is widely used in archaeology and palaeoecology to investigate diet and ecological niche. Data interpretations require an understanding of nitrogen isotope compositions at the base of the food web (baseline δ15N). Significant variation in animal δ15N has been recognised at various spatiotemporal scales and related to changes both in baseline δ15N, linked to environmental and climatic influence on the terrestrial nitrogen cycle, and animal ecology. Isoscapes (models of isotope spatial variation) have proved a useful tool for investigating spatial variability in biogeochemical cycles in present-day marine and terrestrial ecosystems, but so far, their application to palaeo-data has been more limited. Here, we present time-sliced nitrogen isoscapes for late Pleistocene and early Holocene Europe (c. 50,000 to 10,000 years BP) using herbivore collagen δ15N data. This period covers the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition, during which significant variation in the terrestrial nitrogen cycle occurred. We use generalized linear mixed modelling approaches for interpolation and test models which both include and exclude climate covariate data. Our results show clear changes in spatial gradients of δ15N through time. Prediction of the lowest faunal δ15N values in northern latitudes after, rather than during, the Last Glacial Maximum is consistent with the Late Glacial Nitrogen Excursion (LGNE). We find that including climatic covariate data does not significantly improve model performance. These findings have implications for investigating the drivers of the LGNE, which has been linked to increased landscape moisture and permafrost thaw, and for understanding changing isotopic baselines, which are fundamental for studies investigating diets, niche partitioning, and migration of higher trophic level animals

Deglacial landscapes and the Late Upper Palaeolithic of Switzerland

The presence of people in Switzerland in recently deglaciated landscapes after the Last Glacial Maximum represents human utilisation of newly available environments. Understanding these landscapes and the resources available to the people who exploited them is key to understanding not only Late Upper Palaeolithic settlement in Switzerland, but more broadly human behavioural ecology in newly inhabited environmental settings. By applying bone collagen stable isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N and δ34S) to faunal remains from Late Upper Palaeolithic localities in Switzerland, we investigate animal ecology and environmental conditions during periods of human occupation. High and relatively uniform δ34S values indicate that landscapes north of the Jura Mountains provided comparatively stable environmental conditions, while lower and more variable δ34S values on the Swiss Plateau suggest a dynamic landscape with diverse hydrological and pedological conditions, potentially linked to regionally different patterns of permafrost thaw. This contrasts with the archaeological record that appears relatively uniform between the two regions, suggesting people were employing similar subsistence behaviours across a range of environmental settings. The pattern of change in δ15N across the deglacial period appears consistent between areas that remained ice-free throughout the LGM and those that were glaciated. Most notable is a period of exclusively low δ15N values between 15,200 and 14,800 cal. BP, which could relate a regional expansion of floral biomass in response to environmental change

Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian chronology and palaeoenvironments at Kůlna Cave, Moravia, Czech Republic

Kůlna Cave is the only site in Moravia, Czech Republic, from which large assemblages of both Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian archaeological materials have been excavated from relatively secure stratified deposits. The site therefore offers the unrivalled opportunity to explore the relationship between these two archaeological phases. In this study, we undertake radiocarbon, stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur), and ZooMS analysis of the archaeological faunal assemblage to explore the chronological and environmental context of the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits. Our results show that the Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian deposits can be understood as discrete units from one another, dating to the Late Glacial between c. 15,630 cal. BP and 14,610 cal. BP, and c. 14,140 cal. BP and 12,680 cal. BP, respectively. Stable isotope results (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) indicate that Magdalenian and Epimagdalenian activity at Kůlna Cave occurred in very different environmental settings. Magdalenian occupation took place within a nutrient-poor landscape that was experiencing rapid changes to environmental moisture, potentially linked to permafrost thaw. In contrast, Epimagdalenian occupation occurred in a relatively stable, temperate environment composed of a mosaic of woodland and grassland habitats. The potential chronological gap between the two phases, and their associations with very different environmental conditions, calls into question whether the Epimagdalenian should be seen as a local, gradual development of the Magdalenian. It also raises the question of whether the gap in occupation at Kůlna Cave could represent a change in settlement dynamics and/or behavioural adaptations to changing environmental conditions

Dual ancestries and ecologies of the Late Glacial Palaeolithic in Britain

Genetic investigations of Upper Palaeolithic Europe have revealed a complex and transformative history of human population movements and ancestries, with evidence of several instances of genetic change across the European continent in the period following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Concurrent with these genetic shifts, the post-LGM period is characterized by a series of significant climatic changes, population expansions and cultural diversification. Britain lies at the extreme northwest corner of post-LGM expansion and its earliest Late Glacial human occupation remains unclear. Here we present genetic data from Palaeolithic human individuals in the United Kingdom and the oldest human DNA thus far obtained from Britain or Ireland. We determine that a Late Upper Palaeolithic individual from Gough's Cave probably traced all its ancestry to Magdalenian-associated individuals closely related to those from sites such as El Mirón Cave, Spain, and Troisième Caverne in Goyet, Belgium. However, an individual from Kendrick's Cave shows no evidence of having ancestry related to the Gough’s Cave individual. Instead, the Kendrick’s Cave individual traces its ancestry to groups who expanded across Europe during the Late Glacial and are represented at sites such as Villabruna, Italy. Furthermore, the individuals differ not only in their genetic ancestry profiles but also in their mortuary practices and their diets and ecologies, as evidenced through stable isotope analyses. This finding mirrors patterns of dual genetic ancestry and admixture previously detected in Iberia but may suggest a more drastic genetic turnover in northwestern Europe than in the southwest

Multi-Isotope investigations of ungulate bones and teeth from El Castillo and Covalejos caves (Cantabria, Spain): Implications for paleoenvironment reconstructions across the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition

The Cantabrian region of Northern Spain was an important area of human occupation during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic as the rich archaeological record demonstrates. The environmental conditions experienced by late Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in the region during MIS3 are still poorly known, but are crucial to understand the role climatic instability could have had on the adaptations of these populations. In this study, a series of archaeological levels with Mousterian and Aurignacian artefact assemblages, dating between 49 and 35 ka uncal. BP, from the sites of El Castillo and Covalejos caves in Cantabria were studied using multi-isotope techniques including bone collagen δ13C, δ15N and δ34S analysis and a pilot study based on tooth enamel δ18O and δ13C. Results at Covalejos indicate a large range in δ15N values observable within both Mousterian Level D and Aurignacian Level B, suggesting the presence of different micro-environments within the local area at certain times during each temporal period. Within Aurignacian Level C and Mousterian Level J, the δ15N values range is much smaller, but shows consistency in the parts of the landscape being exploited during both times. Neanderthals and AMH appear to have been procuring animals from isotopically similar zones (isozones) when they occupied Covalejos. The variations in δ34S values between levels analysed at Covalejos also implies the use of a variety of hunting locations by both late Neanderthals and AMH. At El Castillo, δ13C and δ15N values show great consistency between levels, indicating that animals were being hunted from the same isozones when the site was presumably occupied by the two human species. The mosaic landscapes of Cantabria may have buffered the sharp environmental fluctuations that occurred during late MIS3 throughout Europe, providing suitable habitats for the key prey ungulate species that were routinely exploited throughout the Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic. This environmental buffering may explain why thi

Were there royal herds? Understanding herd management and mobility using isotopic characterizations of cattle tooth enamel from Early Dynastic Ur.

During the third millennium BC, Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in modern Iraq-Syria), was dominated by the world's earliest cities and states, which were ruled by powerful elites. Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, was one of the largest and most important of these cities, and irrigation-based agriculture and large herds of domesticated animals were the twin mainstays of the economy and diet. Texts suggest that the societies of the Mesopotamian city-states were extremely hierarchical and underpinned by institutionalised and heavily-managed farming systems. Prevailing narratives suggest that the animal management strategies within these farming systems in the third millennium BC were homogenous. There have been few systematic science-based studies of human and animal diets, mobility, or other forms of human-animal interaction in Mesopotamia, but such approaches can inform understanding of past economies, including animal management, social hierarchies, diet and migration. Oxygen, carbon and strontium isotopic analysis of animal tooth enamel from both royal and private/non-royal burial contexts at Early Dynastic Ur (2900-2350 BC) indicate that a variety of herd management strategies and habitats were exploited. These data also suggest that there is no correlation between animal-management practices and the cattle found in royal or private/non-royal burial contexts. The results demonstrate considerable divergence between agro-pastoral models promoted by the state and the realities of day-to-day management practices. The data from Ur suggest that the animals exploited different plant and water sources, and that animals reared in similar ways ended up in different depositional contexts