Brian Chisholm

Stable-carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets

The stable-carbon isotope ratios for the flesh of marine and terrestrial animals from Canadas Pacific coast differ by 7.9 � 0.4 per mil, reflecting the ∼ 7 per mil difference between oceanic and atmospheric carbon. This difference is passed on to human consumers. The carbon isotopic values (δ13C) for human collagen thus yield direct information on the relative amounts of marine and terrestrial foods in prehistoric diets.

Carbon Isotope Measurement Techniques for Bone Collagen: Notes For the Archaeologist

Abstract Stable carbon isotope analysis of archaeological human bone collagen is becoming increasingly useful in diet reconstructions. This paper describes, for archaeologists, the techniques that we have found useful in carrying out such analyses, and discusses the requirements for measurement accuracy and inter-laboratory calibration.

Basketmaker II Subsistence: Carbon Isotopes and Other Dietary Indicators from Cedar

Four separate lines of evidence show that the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II were dependent on maize horticulture: the settlement pattern of the mesa-top Basketmaker II; stable carbon-isotope analysis of Basketmaker and other skeletal remains from the Cedar Mesa area; and two different analyses of coprolites and midden constituents from the Turkey Pen Cave site (a Basketmaker II site in Grand Gulch, which drains parts of Cedar Mesa). All of these analyses concur with a dependence on maize horticulture for the Cedar Mesa Basketmaker II, a dependence not differing significantly from later Pueblo inhabitants of Cedar Mesa and elsewhere. Whether other Basketmaker II variants were as reliant on maize is uncertain, but there are good indications that at least some, and probably all, were. By 2,000 years ago the Basketmaker II peoples on Cedar Mesa were not modified hunters and gatherers, but relied on maize.

Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Evidence on Basketmaker II Diet at Cedar Mesa, Utah

ABSTRACTSince the early 1900s various estimates have been made about Anasazi diet, particularly regarding their use of maize. Stable-carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis on the bone gelatin from ten humans recovered from sites in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah (carbon isotope results for eight of them were reported in Matson and Chisholm 1991) indicates that both the Basketmaker II and Pueblo people in that area relied heavily on C4 plants, or C4- eating herbivores, in their diets. About 79 percent, or more, of their protein was obtained from these sources, indicating that maize was extremely important in their diet. The Pueblo diet appears to have been approximately 5 percent higher in C4 food intake than the Basketmaker II diet. The single Archaic period individual presents a different pattern in both nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios.

Fishing and Foraging

The end of the Paleolithic is a major watershed in human prehistory. Not only did sophisticated art and funeral practices appear for the first time, but major economic and technological changes were underway that would lead to food production and the domestication of plants and animals. Trying to understand the exact nature of these changes and why they occurred is one of the most challenging problems confronting prehistorians today. The research that we have undertaken seeks to define more precisely the nature of some of these changes by focusing on the economic importance of salmon in southwestern France.

Cultural and Genetic Contexts for Early Turkey Domestication in the Northern Southwest

Abstract The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was independently domesticated in Mesoamerica and the Southwest, the latter as the only case of Native American animal domestication north of Mexico. In the upland (non-desert) portion of the American Southwest, distinctive closely related mtDNA lineages belonging to haplogroup H1 (thought to indicate domestication) occur from ca. 1 A.D. (Basketmaker II period) through early historic times. At many sites, low frequencies of lineages belonging to haplogroup H2 also occur, apparently derived from the local Merriam’s subspecies. We report genetic, stable isotope, and coprolite data from turkey remains recovered at three early sites in SE Utah and SW Colorado dating to the Basketmaker II, III, and early Pueblo II periods. Evidence from these and other early sites indicates that both the H1 and H2 turkeys had a predominantly maize-based diet similar to that of humans; prior to late Pueblo II times, the birds were kept primarily to provide feathers for blankets and ritual uses; and ritualized burials indicate turkeys’ symbolic value. We argue that viewing individuals from the H1 and H2 haplogroups as “domestic” versus “wild” is an oversimplification.

Isotopic studies of the diet of the people of the coast of British Columbia

In 1982, Chisholm et al. used δ(13) C data for human burials from shell midden sites widely distributed on the coast of British Columbia (BC) to show the extreme dependence of these individuals on high trophic level marine consumers, principally salmon and marine mammals. Here, we present previously unpublished analyses of δ(15) N for some of the same individuals as well as δ(13) C data for additional individuals. Nitrogen isotope data show that the diet was dominated by high trophic level marine fauna including carnivorous fish and marine mammals. Although most burials were found in shell middens, marine mollusks made up of only a minor component of diet. The data for δ(13) C demonstrate that terrestrial faunal foods are undetectable in the diet of the majority of individuals, and seldom constitute more than 10% of the dietary protein of individuals living on the coast although terrestrial fauna were widely available as a potential source of protein. This dietary pattern of exclusion of land-based animals from their diet persisted for almost 6,000 years along a wide expanse of coastline. In contrast, people from the BC interior (100 km or more from the coast) consumed a mixed diet of terrestrial and marine foods including spawning salmon.