Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes

Carbon and nitrogen isotopes in archaeology are used primarily in the study of past diet, but there are also important applications that concern past environments and human activity. Carbon and oxygen isotopes have been used in proveniencing to determine the source of marble and other forms of carbonate rocks. Carbon isotopes have been used as survey tool to locate the boundaries of ancient soils and determine the extent of certain types of vegetation. The discussion below focuses on human bone and questions about past diets, the primary application of these two isotopic systems. These principles are also involved in the study of other questions. 

Human food chain based on other plants 

---

Katzenberg, M.A., Saunders, S.R. and Fitzgerald, W.R. 1993 Age differences in stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in a population of prehistoric maize horticulturists. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 90 267-281. 

Table 2.1. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of animal and human skeletal remains from the Predassic archaeological deposits at Cuello. Belize.

Figure 2.2. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of marine fauna from Belize, Ecuador (van der Merwe et al. 1993), and the southwestern Cape coast of South Africa (Sealy and van der Merwe 1986).

Table 2.3. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values in hair of modern human and canid residents of the Cuello area Orange Walk, Belize. 1992.

Figure 2.3. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of human bone collagen at Maya sites in Belize. The value for the modem sample has been corrected for collagen-hair spacing and the Industrial Effect. Boxes represent isotopic means one standard deviation.

Figure 2.4. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values in human bone collagen from Preclassic Belize (Cuello and Lamanai) and from the Preclassic Peten (Altar de Sacrificios and Seibal).

Keegan, W.F. and DeNiro, M.J. 1988 Stable carbon- and nitrogen- isotope ratios of bone collagen used to study coral-reef and terrestrial components of prehistoric Bahamian diet. American Antiquity 53 320-336. 

Reed, D.M. 1994 Ancient Maya diet at Copan, Honduras, as determined through the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. In Sobolik, K.D., ed., Paleonutrition The Diet and Health of Prehistoric Americans. Occasional Paper 22, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, University of Southern Illinois 210-221. 

Ambrose, S.H. 1986 Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and animal diet in Mrica. Journal of Human Evolution 15 707-731. 

Climate and habitat reconstruction using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope... 

Bocherens, H., Fizet, M. and Mariotti, A. 1994 Diet, physiology and ecology of fossil mammals as inferred from stable carbon and nitrogen isotope biogeochemistry implications for Pleistocene bears. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 107 213-225. 

Vogel, J.C., Talma, A.S., Hall-Martin, A.J. and Viljoen, P.J. 1990 Carbon and nitrogen isotopes in elephants. South African Journal of Science 86 147-150. 

Larsen, C.S., Schoeninger, M.J., van der Merwe, N.J., Moore, K.M. and Lee-Thorp, J. 1992 Carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures of human dietary change in the Georgia Bight. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89 197-214. 

Table 9.4. C N molar ratios (calculated and measured), total C and N content and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from bacteria, their growth medium (nutrient broth), and from collagen (infected and non-infected marten bone). The bacteria for inoculation were raised on nutrient broth (nb), with/without additives.

Ambrose, S.H. DeNiro, M.J. (1989). Climate and habitat reconstruction using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of collagen in prehistoric herbivore teeth from Kenya. Quaternary Research 31,407-422. 

Hare, P. E. and Estep, M. L. F. (1983) Carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of amino acids in modern and fossil collagens. Carnegie Institution Washington Yearbook 82, 410 414. 

Sealy, J. (1997) Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios and coastal diets in the Later Stone Age of South Africa a comparison and critical analysis of two data sets. Ancient Biomolecules 1, 131 147. 

Cox, G., Sealy, J., Schrire, C. and Morris, A. (2001). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses of the underclass at the colonial Cape of Good Hope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. World Archaeology 33 73-97. 

Richards, M.P., Mays, S. and Fuller, B.T. (2002). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of bone and teeth reflect weaning age at the Medieval Wharram Percy site, Yorkshire UK. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 119 205-210. 

---