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

这个研究项目使DeNiro博士和他的同事能够继续研究通过分析骨骼遗骸可以在多大程度上重建饮食。德尼罗博士和其他人的研究表明了这种方法的可行性。例如，C12/C13的比例在不同的植物物种中有所不同，有证据表明，这种差异反映在骨架材料的碳比例中。除了碳，氮，硫和锶也可能提供饮食线索。德尼罗博士和他的同事们将研究同位素在不同食物类型中的分布，并通过控制饮食来观察这是如何反映在骨骼成分中的。由于考古学家发现的骨头通常在地下躺了很长一段时间，并经历了一些成岩作用（死后改变），德尼罗博士还将研究这些过程对骨同位素比率的影响。他还将研究罐子碎片上的骨头和有机残留物，以重建沿海和高原秘鲁、巴哈马群岛、加州和东非的史前饮食。重建史前饮食对人类学家来说很重要，因为它使他们能够了解不同群体如何生存和利用他们的环境。它还允许他们研究饮食，人口增长和疾病之间的关系。

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.