Reconstruction of Prehistoric Diet Based on Stable Isotope Ratios of Bone and Organic Residues from Pot Sherds

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This research project permits Dr. DeNiro and his colleagues to continue their investigation into the extent to which diet can be reconstructed through analysis of skeletal remains. Research by Dr. DeNiro and others has shown the feasibility of this approach. For example, ratios of C12/C13 vary in different species of plants, and evidence indicated that such variation is reflected in the carbon ratio of skeletal material. In addition to carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and strontium may also provide dietary clues. Dr. DeNiro and his colleagues will study the distribution of isotopes among different food types and see how, through controlled diet, this is reflected in bone composition. Since bones recovered by archaeologists have usually lain in the ground for long periods of time and undergone some diagenesis, (post mortem alteration), Dr. DeNiro will also study the effects of such processes on bone isotope ratios. He will also study the bone and organic residues on pot sherds to reconstruct aspects of prehistoric diet in coastal and highland Peru, the Bahamas, California and East Africa. Reconstruction of prehistoric diet is important to anthropologists because it permits them to understand how different groups subsisted and utilized their environment. It also permits them to examine the relationships among diet, population growth and disease.