Diets, ancient

Lambert, J.B. and Weydert, J.M. 1993 The fundamental relationship between ancient diet and the inorganic constituents of bone as derived from feeding experiments. Archaeometry 35 279-294. 

White, C.D. 1997 Ancient diet at Lamanai and Pacbitun implications for the ecological model of collapse. In Whittington, S.L and Reed, D.M., eds.. Bones of the Maya Studies of Ancient Skeletons. Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution Press 171-180. 

Chisholm, B.S., Nelson, D.E. and Schwarcz, H.P. 1982 Stable-carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets. Science 216 1131-1132. 

Weydert, J. 1990 Elemental Analysis of Bone for Ancient Diet Reconstruction. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Northwestern University. 

We would argue that it is the task of those aiming to reconstruct ancient diet as well as those aiming to imderstand how isotopic fractionation signatures are produced, to devise experiments and analyze the results in order to... 

The isotopes of many elements (see Textbox 12) provide important tools for obtaining information on many archaeological investigations their use may enable researchers, for example, to determine the provenance (see Textbox 30) or the age of materials (see Textboxes 15 and 16), calculating ancient temperatures (see Textbox 47), or elucidating the nature of the ancient diets of human beings as well as of animals (see Textbox 59). 

Carbon-13 Provenance studies, study of ancient diets... 

Strontium-87 Study of ancient diets Provenance studies... 

The isotopic composition of carbon in the proteins, which are one of the main components of animal tissues, reflects the nature of the food resources in the diet of the animals. Determining the relative abundance of the stable isotopes of carbon in the proteins of bones or hair, for example, can facilitate understanding of the effects that different types of plants or animal food resources had on ancient diets (Katzenberg 2000 Burton 1996). 

Ambrose, S. H. (2006), A tool for all seasons - Laser ablation carbon isotope analysis and ancient diets, Science 314, 930-931. 

Hillman, G. (1986). Plant foods in ancient diet The archaeological role of palaeofae-ces in general and Lindow Man s gut contents in particular, in Stead, I. M., J. B. Bourke, and D. Brothwell (eds.), Lindow Man The Body in the Bog, Cornell Univ.,... 

Evershed R.P., Heron C., Goad L.J., Epicuticular wax components preserved in potsherds as chemical indicators of leafy vegetables in ancient diets, Antiquity, 1991, 65, 540 544. 

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