Domestic pigs became the primary source of meat in northern China by ca 6000 cal yr B.P., coinciding with the intensification of C4 millet agriculture. The seasonal management of pig husbandry and its relationship with millet production, however, remain unclear. To explore the seasonal birthing, feeding, and drinking behaviours of Neolithic pigs, we analysed sequential tooth enamel oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope profiles of pigs from the site of Xipo (ca 5800–5000 cal yr B.P.), and compared them against those of modern wild boar. In contrast to the single birthing season (spring) for wild boar, the δ18O profiles of Xipo pigs support the hypothesis of two birthing seasons, spring and autumn. These results provide some of the earliest evidence for off-season birthing in Neolithic pigs, suggesting an extension of the pig breeding season under human management. Also, in contrast to the low δ13C values of wild C3-foraging boar, the consistently high δ13C values of Xipo pigs suggest year-round consumption of C4 resources, most likely derived from millet by-products and other C4 resources associated with settlement life. These findings suggest that Neolithic farmers in the middle Yellow River region managed the seasonality of pig breeding and feeding by ca 5500 cal yr B.P. By this point, pig husbandry and millet farming had been integrated into a seasonal agricultural cycle.

During the terminal Pleistocene through Holocene, changes in dietary diversity signaled fundamental shifts in the way humans related to food resources in many parts of the globe. To understand local and regional dietary variation across the transition to food production in Kenya and Tanzania, we compare isotopic values of biological tissues (tooth enamel and bone collagen) from 111 ancient foragers and herders dated ~9,500-230 B.P., alongside isotopic data from contemporary eastern Africans, and contextualize these findings with ancient leaf wax and ceramic lipid residues. Fisher-foragers had remarkably diverse approaches to subsistence, and the earliest pastoralists in Kenya's Turkana Basin ~5,000 years ago retained dietary diversity amid major environmental and cultural changes. The shift to more specialized pastoralist diets did not occur until a millennium after the initial introduction of livestock.

The unusual burial of a young woman in the Pica Oasis in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900-1450) raises questions about her origins. Here, we present the results of a programme of bioanthropological, radiocarbon dating and sequential analyses of teeth and hair to reconstruct aspects of her life and death. This is complemented by previous isotopic data (enamel and bone apatite, bone collagen). Results strongly suggest a highland origin for the woman. Sometime around age 25-30, she travelled to the Pica Oasis. In the process her diet changed from C3 resources to fertilized C4 crops. Partly healed fractures of the hip, shoulder and wrist show that she suffered a severe fall after arriving in Pica. Our study demonstrates that she was born and then lived until young adulthood in the Altiplano after which she undertook a journey to the Pica Oasis. Following the accident and in the last 10 months of her life, she would have required care. That she was buried in a local cemetery with a mixture of local and non-local features demonstrates both her acceptance into the Pica community and a recognition of her Altiplano origins.

Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are increasingly used as a provenance tool in multiple disciplines. Application to biological materials requires knowledge of the variation in bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr across the landscape, potentially in the form of an isoscape (a quantitative model of spatial isotopic variability). This paper summarizes and provides advice on our current understanding of the main concerns in creating and interpreting isoscapes of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr. Isoscape creation approaches include domain mapping, geostatistical contour mapping and machine learning, the last becoming more readily achievable with the availability of software packages. It is critically important to develop isoscapes at a resolution appropriate for addressing the research questions. Choice of sample materials depends on the research questions and availability: plants or fauna with small ranges are favoured, with some analytes (snails, soil leachates) posing challenges. Interpreting 87Sr/86Sr in biological tissues requires considering Sr metabolism and the timing of tissue formation, thus far underappreciated. The numerous sources of error involved in developing and applying isoscapes must be recognized to avoid over-interpreting data and spurious provenance precision. We hope this paper will help researchers investigating provenance, mobility, landscape use and migration to develop the most appropriate isoscapes for their purposes, and possible future use by others.

When Dart recognised the fossilised skull of the Taung Child as a hominin ancestor, he also observed that its "sere environment" produced few foods preferred by African apes in equatorial forests. He thus set in motion an inquiry into the dietary and environmental proclivities of fossil hominins. His observations ultimately led him to suggest a strong reliance on meat-eating, later elaborated into a hunting model. Subsequent investigations into the diets of the South African australopithecines led to the development of new approaches including dental microwear, stable light isotopes, and trace element analyses, which together led to a new focus on the prime importance of plant foods, for which there had been little direct behavioural evidence. Here we review why and how stable and radiogenic isotope approaches to hominin diet and residence patterns were developed in South Africa, the problems that had to be addressed, and the subsequent outcomes. Significance: We outline how a distinctive set of circumstances in South Africa combined to produce world-leading progress in palaeoanthropological and archaeological research based on fossil isotope biogeochemistry. They include a unique natural and fossil heritage, investment in scientific infrastructure and researchers well- versed in cross-disciplinary science. Together they played leading roles in addressing important questions about African fossil heritage. We point to where we believe future progress is required and we suggest that closer attention is paid to the role of plants because, as the basis of all ecosystems, they represent the most important element in the diets of most primates and hominins.

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RationaleEmbedding resins are commonly used to facilitate high‐resolution sampling for stable isotope analysis but anomalous δ13C values have been observed in some cases. Here we compare the results of microsampling strategies for hand‐drilled versus resin‐embedded micromilled samples from the same marine shells to assess whether resin contamination is implicated in δ13C spikes. The comparison allows assessment of the relative benefits for spatial resolution, seasonal range for both δ18O and δ13C, and sample failure rates.MethodsHand‐drilled samples were obtained from two bivalve shells (Spisula sachalinensis), corresponding to micromilled samples on the same shells where high δ13C spikes were observed. All carbonate powders were analysed using a dual‐inlet Isoprime mass spectrometer and Multiprep device. Results from both sample sets were compared statistically.ResultsNo anomalous high δ13C values and no failures due to insufficient gas were observed in the hand‐drilled samples in contrast to the embedded micromilled sequences. Spatial resolution was reduced (~2.5×) in the former compared with the latter, resulting in a small reduction in the total range observed in the micromilled δ13C and δ18O values. Reduced sampling resolution between the two datasets was only significant for δ18O.ConclusionsFor S. sachalinensis (as with other similar bivalves), rapid growth mitigates the reduced sampling resolution of hand drilling and does not significantly impact observed isotopic range and seasonal patterning. Occurrence of anomalous δ13C values were eliminated and failure rates due to insufficient sample size greatly reduced in the hand‐drilled dataset. We can find no other explanation for the occurrence of δ13C spikes than contamination by the embedding agent. We conclude that the logistical and interpretational benefits of careful hand drilling may be preferable to resin embedding for micromilling in marine shells, corals or speleothems where growth rate is rapid and the highest resolution is not required.

The timing of infant weaning in the past is important for its implications for birth-spacing and infant survival, and hence for population maintenance or growth under different socio-economic regimes. Prior to the adoption of agriculture, breastfeeding is believed to have been more prolonged amongst hunter-gatherers due, at least partly, to the lack of suitable weaning foods that are available to agriculturalists. The introduction of pottery possibly also changed weaning patterns due to shifts in food preparation even prior to the adoption of domesticated foods. Here we apply stable carbon and nitrogen isotope sequential samples on dentine to explore differences in diet relating to weaning age, social roles and food sharing between children and adults in a wellpreserved Mesolithic/Neolithic population from the cemetery of Zvejnieki, Latvia. We address whether there are differences in diet between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic periods, defined here by the appearance of pottery rather than the adoption of agriculture. Considerable variability in weaning patterns was observed, but in general individuals tended to be breastfed from birth, with the contribution of breast milk declining after the age of 6-12 months, and completely withdrawn by the age of 3 years. We note a difference in delta 15N dentine profiles between the Mesolithic and Neolithic, which may be linked to the introduction of pottery. We also assess differences in diets in relation to identities marked in death, specifically the presence or absence of animal tooth pendants. The carbon and nitrogen isotope profiles for sequentially sampled first molars show that adults who were buried without animal tooth pendants as grave goods consumed more freshwater resources during their childhoods than those buried with animal tooth pendants. We conclude that infant and childhood diet reflected different societal roles or identities within the population that continued into adulthood.

This work uses stable isotope analysis in order to understand human diet and mobility patterns in coastal and inland groups from the Atacama Desert. By the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900–1450), populations of the Atacama Desert had developed agro-pastoralism systems, villages, and social complexity. The different cultural groups inhabiting northern Chile exchanged and traded resources, as demonstrated by the presence of exotic and foreign objects in local domestic and funerary sites. Even though these exchanges have been associated with the existence of caravan systems, questions remain regarding the identity of the people moving, where they came from, their cultural identities and social conditions. Here, analyses of δ13C and δ15N were conducted on tooth enamel and bone collagen and apatite to develop our understanding of these issues with different groups within the Pica-Tarapacá Cultural Complex. Our results suggest diet was highly variable and directly related to the geographical location inhabited by the different cultural groups. We also identified isotopic outliers of different ages and sex, who we characterize as non-local individuals. This study suggest mobility was diverse and dynamic and extended to adult men and women, as well as children, who relocated to local sites from different regions in the South Central Andes.

The Hofmeyr skull is a singular and important fossil find, dating to a period in the late Pleistocene when the human fossil record is extremely poorly represented in southern Africa. However, its lack of contextual evidence is a serious impediment to a complete appreciation of the specimen, requiring that every bit of information possible be extracted from the fossil itself. Here we investigate the mobility and dietary ecologyEcology of the Hofmeyr individual by analyzing the strontiumStrontium (87Sr/86Sr), carbon (δ13C), and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic composition from molar tooth enamel. We compared the former against 87Sr/86Sr in the parietal bone, associated endocranial matrix, and bioavailableBioavailable strontiumStrontium isotopes from an 80 km radius of the find location. The strontium isotope data are consistent with a scenario in which the Hofmeyr individual lived in the study area as a youth. The δ18O value is consistent with expectations for an individual from the KarooKaroo in a cooler Pleistocene climateClimate. The δ13C value suggests that most dietary carbon was from C3 sources, with c. 15–20% from C4 plants (grasses or sedges) and/or the animals that consumed those plants.

Agriculture has been crucial in sustaining human populations in South Asia across dramatically variable environments for millennia. Until recently, however, the origins of this mode of subsistence in India have been discussed in terms of population migration and crop introduction, with limited focus on how agricultural packages were formulated and utilised in local contexts. Here, we report the first measurements of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values in well-preserved charred crop remains from sites spanning the Neolithic/Chalcolithic to the Early Historic in two very different environmental zones: tropical East India and the semi-arid Deccan. The results show that this approach offers direct insight into prehistoric crop management under contrasting environmental constraints. Our preliminary results plausibly suggest that early farmers in India experimented with and made strategic use of water and manure resources in accordance with specific crop requirements and under varying environmental constraints. We suggest that the development of modern crop isotope baselines across India, and the application of this methodology to archaeological assemblages, has the potential to yield detailed insight into agroecology in India's past.

It is well-known that pigs (Sus scrofa) were domesticated very early in Neolithic China, but far less is known about the processes by which pig husbandry intensified so that pork became the most important animal protein for humans are less clear. Here, we explore pig feeding practices using the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of bone collagen, focusing on developments in pig husbandry during the Yangshao period (7000–5000 BP) in the middle Yellow River region of China, and at the site of Xipo (5800–5000 BP) in particular. The results show that the diets of domestic pigs at Xipo were dominated by millet foods. Comparisons with other Yangshao sites in the region show a trend of increasing millet foddering for pigs throughout the Yangshao period. These results, and comparisons of the isotopic data for pigs against those for humans from the Xipo cemetery (5300–5000 BP), suggest that pigs were closely managed by humans. The evidence points to an intensification of Neolithic pig husbandry in the middle Yellow River region from this period.

This paper presents a four year subannual isotope marine temperature record using modern Spisula sachalinensis specimens from Tomakomai (Hokkaido's Pacific coast, Japan). This species is commonly found in pre- and protohistoric shell middens and faunal assemblages from around the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk, so has significant potential as an indicator of past marine and, by inference, climatic conditions. However, previous sclerochronological research on the species' growth has shown significant geographical variation in growth pattern, rendering palaeoclimatic interpretation difficult. To address this issue, this study applied sequential isotopic analysis to two sectioned modern valves, providing a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) and allowing the direct identification of seasonality during shell growth. The sequences span four years of growth, as confirmed by visually identified growth patterns and the oxygen stable isotope results, which show clear annual cycles in δ18O. δ13C seasonality is less clear, but shows a weak inverse correlation with temperature potentially relating to primary productivity. Annual growth lines show that shell growth occurs during both warmer and cooler SSTs, but is more rapid during the cooler seasons. This is consistent with warm-season growth minima seen in shells from Hakodate Bay by Kato and Hamai (1975), but not with their suggestion that it is associated with shells growing at the southern limits of their distribution. Comparison to average local SST shows that δ18O-derived temperature falls within the expected range, but, contrary to expectations given preferential cool-season shell growth, appears biased towards warmer temperatures. Factors that could contribute to this are discussed. Overall, stable isotope analysis of Spisula sachalinensis is considered a useful complement to macro/microscopic sclerochronological research in building a holistic picture of shell growth, and has significant potential as a high resolution proxy for palaeoenvironmental studies of past SST.

The archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile’s hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (δ 15 N) from around ad 1000. Maize was most affected, with δ 15 N values as high as +30‰, and human bone collagen following a similar trend; moreover, their carbon isotope values (δ 13 C) indicate a considerable increase in the consumption of maize at the same time. We attribute the shift to extremely high δ 15 N values—the highest in the world for archaeological plants—to the use of seabird guano to fertilize crops. Guano—‘white gold’ as it came to be called—thus sustained agricultural intensification, supporting a substantial population in an otherwise extreme environment.

OBJECTIVES Stable isotope analysis of sequential dentine samples is a potentially powerful method to reveal insights into early life-histories of individuals in the past. Dentine incremental growth structures are complex, however, and current approaches that apply horizontal sectioning of demineralized tooth halves or quarters risk combining multiple growth layers and may include unwanted cementum or secondary dentine. They also require destruction of large parts of a tooth. Here, we present a less destructive and relatively straightforward protocol that reduces damage, increases temporal resolution, and improves the accuracy of age-alignment between individuals. MATERIAL AND METHODS We outline a protocol that includes the sampling of small (1 mm diameter) cylindrical plug transects from a thin section, along with an age-alignment scheme predicated on average growth rates for dentine areas. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The proposed protocol is readily applicable and more anatomically sensitive than horizontal slicing. Micro-samples are smaller (in both length and depth), hence minimizing temporal overlap and avoid directions that may contravene growth pattern. They completely avoid areas where secondary and tertiary dentine or cementum can be deposited. Age-alignment is improved by using growth ratios of anatomical tooth zones. CONCLUSION This method minimizes destruction, enables finer temporal resolution and facilitates data comparison. It can be readily combined with fluorescence imaging-based or other pre-screening methods of dentine collagen preservation.