Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Early Neolithic diets at Baijia, Wei River valley, China: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and faunal remains

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Grice, Kliti
    Atahan, P.
    Li, X.
    Chen L.
    Hu, S.
    Zhou, X.
    Burtuch, F.
    Date
    2011
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Atahan, Pia and Dodson, John and Li, Xiaoquang and Zhou, Xinying and Hu, Songmei and Chen, Liang and Burtuch, Fiona and Grice, Kliti. 2011. Early Neolithic diets at Baijia, Wei River valley, China: stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human and faunal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science. 38 (10): pp. 2811-2817.
    Source Title
    Journal of Archaeological Science
    DOI
    10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.032
    ISSN
    03054403
    School
    Department of Applied Chemistry
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34372
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values are presented for faunal and human bone collagen from Baijia, in the Wei River valley region of Shaanxi Province, China. The remains have a calibrated age range of ca. 5709–5389 BC, and correspond with the early Neolithic Laoguantai Period. Stable isotopic results indicate that human diets included millet and probably aquatic foods such as fish and shellfish. Bovid samples are tentatively identified as water buffalo, and have a mean δ13C value of -14.6‰, which reflects some millet consumption. Whether bovids were grazing on wild millet, or had diets directly influenced by humans, is not known. The single Sus sample from Baijia had a diet dominated by C3 plants and is thus unlikely to have been a domesticated animal. Overall, the stable isotope results presented here conform to the current concept that the people of the Laoguantai culture were millet farmers, who had subsistence strategies that included hunted wild foods.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Disentangling the impacts of climate and human colonization on the flora and fauna of the Australian arid zone over the past 100 ka using stable isotopes in avian eggshell
      Miller, Gifford; Fogel, M.; Magee, J.; Gagan, M. (2016)
      Throughout the Quaternary, the flora and fauna of Australia evolved and adapted to the high-amplitude, low- and high-frequency climate changes that characterized the ice-age cycles. However, during the last glacial cycle, ...
    • A review of methods used to analyse albatross diets - Assessing priorities across their range
      McInnes, J.; Raymond, B.; Phillips, R.; Jarman, Simon; Lea, M.; Alderman, R. (2016)
      © 2016 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 2016. All rights reserved. Many seabird populations are threatened by interactions with commercial fisheries, and climate change. Understanding their prey ...
    • New Insights into the Evolution of the Human Diet from Faecal Biomarker Analysis in Wild Chimpanzee and Gorilla Faeces.
      Sistiaga, A.; Wrangham, R.; Rothman, J.; Summons, Roger (2015)
      Our understanding of early human diets is based on reconstructed biomechanics of hominin jaws, bone and teeth isotopic data, tooth wear patterns, lithic, taphonomic and zooarchaeological data, which do not provide information ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.