This paper aims to re-examine the dietary practices of individuals buried at Sigatoka Sand Dunes site (Fiji) in Burial Ground 1 excavated by Simon Best in 1987 and 1988 using two approaches and a reassessment of their archaeological, bioarchaeological and chronological frame. First, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis was applied to document dietary changes between childhood and adulthood using an intra-individual approach on paired bone-tooth. Second, the potential adaptation of the individuals to their environment was evaluated through regional and temporal comparisons using inter-individual bone analysis. Ten AMS radiocarbon dates were measured directly on human bone collagen samples, placing the series in a range of approximately 600 years covering the middle of the first millennium CE (1,888 to 1,272 cal BP). δ13C and δ15N ratios were measured on bone and tooth collagen samples from 38 adult individuals. The results show that δ15N values from tooth are higher than those s from bone while bone and tooth δ13C values are similar, except for females. Fifteen individuals were included in an intra-individual analysis based on paired bone and tooth samples, which revealed six dietary patterns distinguished by a differential dietary intake of marine resources and resources at different trophic levels. These highlight sex-specific differences not related to mortuary practices but to daily life activities, supporting the hypothesis of a sexual division of labour. Compared to other Southwest Pacific series, Sigatoka diets show a specific trend towards marine food consumption that supports the hypothesis of a relative food self-sufficiency requiring no interactions with other groups.

Differences in dietary patterns between the islands of South Vanuatu are expected due to differences in ecological and cultural characteristics of the islands and their complex histories of settlement, adaptation and interaction. This paper examines the human dietary practices of 32 individuals from three of the five islands in the region: Aniwa, Futuna and Tanna, between 2000 BP and the 20th century, using for the first time carbon and nitrogen isotope data measured in bone collagen. Our analysis includes an expanded baseline of local faunal and plant resources, with taxonomic identification of local faunal remains enhanced by proteomic determinations (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry; ZooMS). Human collagen delta C-13 values ranged from-19.7 to-16.2 %o, and delta N-15 values from 6,3 to 9,7 %o, with a large inter-individual variability. Based on our improved baseline, we suggested that the individuals with the highest delta C-13 and delta N-15 values would have consumed marine coral reef fish along with C3 plants. An individual with the lowest delta C-13 and delta N-15 values could have consumed mainly resources from mangrove. Four patterns were identified that may reflect the geographical characteristics of the islands, the normalisation of diet over time, the nutritional stress of individuals in relation to environmental and climatic factors, and social differentiation in food acquisition and/or consumption, illustrating issues of equifinality in bioarchaeological data interpretation.

The Upper Seine Valley sees during the Bronze Age an increase in settlements and cemeteries characterized by a variety of architectures and funerary practices. This variability originates from the coalescence of two cultural traditions, the Atlantic culture from the northwest and the Continental culture from the east, which find its roots in the Upper Rhine area. In this context, our research aims to understand the cultural identity of these communities by reconstructing subsistence economy and palaeodietary patterns and to trace human mobility, which influenced lifestyle and social–economic dynamics. Adding new 10 AMS dating and using multi-isotope (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, δ 34 S) and multi-proxy (botanical, animal and human remains) biochemical investigations, we detected changes in dietary habits throughout the Bronze Age linked to varying C 3 and C 4 plant consumption and diverse animal protein intake by humans. Three main outcomes are highlighted: (1) a variety of farming strategies with different manuring intensity according to the cereal species; (2) site-specific dietary patterns; (3) an increase in millet and animal protein intake during the Late Bronze Age. Moreover, results from one cemetery reveal that individual mobility is more significant for males. These dietary variations, differential agricultural strategies and mobility are consistent with other western Europe research, supporting major global changes in all of Europe at the end of the Bronze Age.

This paper explores issues of health, diet, and mortuary practices in the countryside of Boeotia, Central Greece, during the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods (12th-19th centuries AD). Boeotia was one of the Byzantine Empire's most important economic and artistic centers with a flourishing life in the cities and the countryside alike and a varied (socially and culturally) population. The human remains unearthed in connection to the church of Hagios Sozon in Orchomenos were analyzed to investigate the everyday challenges and social makeup of the inhabitants in the countryside. The examination of paleopathological lesions and stable isotopes (carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur) in combination showed moderate living conditions, a homogenous terrestrial diet, and signs of mobility, while the consumption of freshwater food sources was not detected, despite the vicinity to Lake Copais. Finally, social differentiation was suggested through the construction of a family burial structure and the mortuary treatment for preterms, perinates, and infants.

Food and its interactions with the environmental, economic, social, and cultural spheres play an essential role in communities' cultural identity. This theory has been verified by an analysis of the Kura-Araxes (KA) culture, characterised by original cultural developments, which spread in the South Caucasus around the middle of the fourth millennium BC. This research aims to study the variability of dietary choices at the individual and population levels by analysing stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C, δ15N). To monitor regional and diachronic changes in dietary patterns, we performed analysis on human, animal, and plant materials (n = 144) from eight KA highland and lowland sites in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia compared with data (n = 39) from Post-KA sites already published (Herrscher et al. 2016, 2018b). Isotopic data show no significant differences with altitude. The KA diet is characterised by higher consumption of herbivore meat than pork and higher barley consumption than wheat. No relationship with age at death, sex, and burial traits were observed, suggesting "equal" access to food among community members. Human low isotope variability shows persistence over KA's entire duration (3,500-2,500 BC), while it is significantly different between KA and Post-KA subjects. The results confirm the homogeneity of KA communities' food practices that reinforces the theory of a "strong cultural identity" of the KA populations.

Two millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica , were domesticated in northern China, around 6000 BC. Although its oldest evidence is in Asia, possible independent domestication of these species in the Caucasus has often been proposed. To verify this hypothesis, a multiproxy research program (Orimil) was designed to detect the first evidence of millet in this region. It included a critical review of the occurrence of archaeological millet in the Caucasus, up to Antiquity; isotopic analyses of human and animal bones and charred grains; and radiocarbon dating of millet grains from archaeological contexts dated from the Early Bronze Age (3500–2500 BC) to the 1 st Century BC. The results show that these two cereals were cultivated during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), around 2000–1800 BC, especially Setaria italica which is the most ancient millet found in Georgia. Isotopic analyses also show a significant enrichment in 13 C in human and animal tissues, indicating an increasing C 4 plants consumption at the same period. More broadly, our results assert that millet was not present in the Caucasus in the Neolithic period. Its arrival in the region, based on existing data in Eurasia, was from the south, without excluding a possible local domestication of Setaria italica .

This study investigates the relationship between monumental funerary structures, social organizations, and diets in Middle Neolithic France. Focusing on the Cerny culture based in the Paris Basin region, we analysed and compared bone collagen stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope values of 113 individuals from three different types of Cerny cemeteries: the Passy type (Cerny STP), slab burials (Cerny Slab), and burials without major superstructure (Cerny Flat). Published stable isotopic data from one other Cerny Flat and two contemporaneous non-Cerny cemeteries (n = 140), together with new and published faunal isotopic data (n = 267) from across six different river valleys in the region are also included in the analysis. The results of this study have shown that (1) the Cerny diet was likely rich in animal protein; (2) comparing to all other cemetery types, Cerny STP sites were considerably homogenous isotopically and culturally, and (3) individuals buried in aberrant funerary arrangements tend to have outlying isotopic compositions, suggesting strong correlations between diets and burial practices. Interestingly, as oppose to the distinctly sex-related funerary arrangements, no obvious pattern can be observed in the isotopic compositions between males and females in Cerny cemeteries.

The demographic shift observed during the Kura-Araxes (KA) period, alongside the diversity of ceramic productions, metallurgical activities and funerary practices, raises the question of the dietary diversity of these societies. In addition, the adoption of different modes of life based on herding and farming and the issue of mobility versus the sedentary life of these societies raise the question of the availability of dietary resources and their relationship with settlement location. In order to further our understanding of the social and economic characteristics of KA societies and their associated “cultural identity”, this paper focuses on the study of dietary practices based on the re-examination of anthropological material from two Georgian populations located in mountainous zones (Kiketi and Tiselis Seri). The paper aims to explore (1) the relationship between highland KA populations and their environment and (2) dietary homogeneity within KA populations. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios (δ13Ccoll, δ13Cap and δ15N) were used for determining human dietary practices. Human collagen and apatite data have evidenced a diet with a similar domestic animal protein intake at the sites of Kiketi and Tiselis Seri. Judging by previously published isotopic data, these populations would have consumed less animal protein than the inhabitants of Chobareti. Our results corroborate the archaeozoological data and point to a possible low population mobility. The inter-individual isotope variability between these highland Georgian KA populations points to the absence of specific practices between females and males, as well as between the different group members buried in the same tombs, which could be interpreted as an egalitarian society, a theory already put forward by some scholars.

The expansion of Neolithic stable isotope studies in France now allows distinct regional population-scale food patterns to be linked to both local environment influences and specific economic choices. Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of more than 500 humans and of animal samples also permit hypotheses on sex-biased human provenance. To advance population scale research, we here present the first study that draws together carbon (C), nitrogen (N), sulphur (S) and strontium (Sr), dental calculus, aDNA, and palaeoparasitology analysis to infer intra-population patterns of diet and provenance in a Middle Neolithic population from Le Vigneau 2 (human = 40; fauna = 12; 4720–4350 cal. BC) from north-western France. The data of the different studies, such as palaeoparasitology to detect diet and hygiene, CNS isotopes and dental calculus analysis to examine dietary staples, Sr and S isotopes to discriminate non-locals, and aDNA to detect maternal (mtDNA) versus paternal lineages (Y chromosome), were compared to anthropological information of sex and age. Collagen isotope data suggest a similar diet for all individuals except for one child. The provenance isotopic studies suggest no clear differences between sexes, suggesting both males and females used the territory in a similar pattern and had access to foods from the same environments.

Since 2013, a French-Moroccan team is surveying and recording the Azrou Klane site, in Assa region, valley of the low Drda. This fieldwork permits us to discover a new phase of engraving in this large slab, dated from "bovidian" period. In particular, in the low part of the slab, close to the wadi ridge and partially filled in by alluvial sediments, we found a bovidian scene very complex and with exceptional concentration of figures. This scene sill be analysed here, in its internal composition and in the perspective of its relations with others rock-art sites of the same region. This "rediscovery" of Azrou Klane site allows to take its importance into account and to consider this site like one of the highlights of Maroccan rock art. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Post-glacial schematic rock paintings extend across the Iberian Peninsula to the Italian Piedmont. The Rocher du Château is one of the few Alpine sites with such painted figurations, located on a main transalpine route at 1750 m.a.s.l. in the Vallée de la Maurienne (Savoie, France). Archeological excavations in front of the painted panels revealed pigments and pigmented pebbles in archaeological levels attributed to the Neolithic Square Mouthed Pottery culture (SMP culture, 4600 –4000 BC). The co-existence of pigments from archeological soils and rock paintings is rare in European prehistory and exceptional for the Neolithic period. The integrated study of these materials, barely attempted before, combined non-invasive in situ methods (digital microscopy and Raman spectroscopy) and analytical studies of micro-samples (SEM-EDX, XRD). The weathering process on the rock surface before and after the layer of paint was studied, and the mineralogical identification of the pigments was analyzed. Complementary physico-chemical analyses were conducted at several scales of observation to identify the composition of the excavated pigments and pigmented materials. Some of them proved to be anthropogenic blends combining hematite and charcoal of plant origin. This association has never before been identified in other prehistoric European archeological sites. Based on these data, the potential links between the pebbles, the production of pigments, and the rock paintings are discussed.

Both archaeological and isotopic data document dietary changes over the first five centuries of Western Pacific island settlement, a time period beginning with the Lapita expansion about 3000 years ago. This change is marked by a decrease in marine food intake and an increase in vegetal food intake occurring in the Late Lapita/ immediately post-Lapita populations. The recent discovery of human burials at Talasiu (similar to 2700-2600 cal. BP) in the Kingdom of Tonga opens new opportunities to assess this matter. We characterize the nature of the food items consumed by the Talasiu humans (n=21) using collagen and apatite carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. We conducted an intra-Pacific comparison to examine the use of marine resources and the contribution of horticultural products and to look at the homogeneity of dietary practices within the Tongan group. Isotope results indicate a mixed diet of terrestrial and marine resources including a differential contribution of more specific marine foods (e.g., non-reef fish/inshore fish and shellfish). The Talasiu dietary pattern appears closer to that of the early Lapita population of Teouma than to other Late Lapita populations suggesting a different pattern of dietary change at the eastern end of the Lapita distribution. The slower rate of change may be due to the small size of both the island and the population, and also the additional potential role of social or cultural factors.

In Southern France as in other parts of Europe, significant changes occurred in settlement patterns between the end of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Small communities gathered to form, by the tenth century, villages organized around a church. This development was the result of a new social and agrarian organization. Its impact on lifestyles and, more precisely, on diet is still poorly understood. The analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen from the inhabitants of the well-preserved medieval rural site Missignac-Saint Gilles le Vieux (fifth to thirteenth centuries, Gard, France) provides insight into their dietary practices and enables a discussion about its transformation over time. A sample of 152 adult individuals dated from 675 to 1175 AD (75 females, 77 males) and 75 specimens from 16 non-human species were analyzed. Results show the exploitation of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems as well as various breeding practices specific to each species. The use of both C 4 and halophyte plants for feeding domestic animals was also observed. Concerning human dietary practices, a change seemed to occur at the beginning of the tenth century with an increase of δ 15 N values and a decrease of δ 13 C values. This corresponds to the introduction of a significant amount of freshwater resources into the diet and could be related to the evolution of the Catholic doctrine. A concomitant diversification of access to individual food resources was also observed, probably linked to the increased diversity of practice inside a population otherwise perceived as one community.

This paper aims to present the context, the methodological approaches and the results of a research project, called ORIMIL and funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR). An integrative multi-proxy analysis, in collaboration with the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, has been designed to identify whether the region of the South Caucasus was also a hotbed of millet domestication and expansion, like China. The results from the fields of anthropology, archaeozoology, archaeobotany, geomorphology and isotopic biogeochemistry for the territories of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia did not reveal the presence of an early Neolithic or Early Bronze Age hub of millet domestication. Isotopic data associated with direct radiocarbon dating on bones showed that millet was consumed by animals and humans at the earliest towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age (1621-1450 cal BC) in Georgia. These results are in keeping with (1) the numerous direct radiocarbon dates on charred millet seeds and (2) the geomorphological studies showing an increase of better soil quality and cultivable areas during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in the Kura valley.