The impact of manuring on nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals: archaeological implications for reconstruction of diet and crop management practices
The impact of manuring on nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals: archaeological implications for reconstruction of diet and crop management practices
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jas.2006.04.009
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发表时间：
2007-03-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Merbach, I.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bogaard, A.;Heaton, T. H. E.;Merbach, I.
最近对人类饮食的考古研究利用人骨胶原蛋白中的稳定氮同位素比率（δ N-15）来推断陆地植物和动物食品的相对重要性。这种方法基于广泛观察到的食物链上游 Delta N-15 的富集，植物的价值明显低于食用它们的食草动物。对英国、丹麦和德国早期农业饮食的研究往往发现相对较高的 Delta N-15 值（例如，约千分之九），这被解释为饮食主要基于动物产品的证据，尽管作物种植的主要非植物学证据（例如碳化谷物和谷壳）很普遍。本文研究了施肥对现代谷物中 Delta N-15 值的影响，以及炭化对这些谷物值的影响。两项长期实验的结果表明，施肥可显着提高谷物和谷壳中的 Delta N-15。根据施肥水平和频率，以此类谷物为主要成分的人类饮食通常被解释为主要以动物为基础的饮食或混合植物/动物饮食。此外，对施肥和未施肥条件下实验烧焦的谷物和谷壳进行初步分析有望从考古植物谷物遗骸中提取可靠的古代三角洲 N-15 值。讨论了这些结果的更广泛影响以及进一步工作的必要性。 (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. 保留所有权利。
Recent archaeological studies of human diet have used stable nitrogen isotope ratios (delta N-15) from human bone collagen to infer the relative importance of terrestrial plant and animal foods. This approach is based on widely observed enrichment of delta N-15 up the food chain, plants having distinctly lower values than the herbivores that consume them. Studies of early farming diets in Britain, Denmark and Germany have tended to detect relatively high delta N-15 values (e.g. c. +9 parts per thousand), interpreted as evidence of a diet largely based on animal products, though arch acobotanical evidence for crop cultivation (e.g. carbonised cereal grain and chaff) is widespread. This paper investigates the impact of manuring on delta N-15 values in modern cereals, and of charring on these cereal values. The results from two long-term experiments demonstrate that manuring significantly raises delta N-15 in cereal grain and chaff. Depending on manuring levels and frequency, it appears that human diets with a major component of such grain would conventionally be interpreted as indicating a largely animal-based diet or a mixed plant/animal diet. Moreover, preliminary analyses of experimentally charred grain and chaff from manured and unmanured conditions are promising for the extraction of reliable ancient delta N-15 values from archaeobotanical cereal remains. The wider implications of these results, and the need for further work, are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.