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Stable Carbon and Nitrogen isotope evidence for prehistoric hunter‐gatherer diet in the lower Murray River basin, South Australia
Author(s) -
Pate F. Donald
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
archaeology in oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1834-4453
pISSN - 0728-4896
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4453.1998.tb00409.x
Subject(s) - hunter gatherer , holocene , prehistory , δ15n , paleoecology , population , δ13c , ecology , isotope analysis , stable isotope ratio , habitat , herbivore , geography , archaeology , biology , physics , demography , quantum mechanics , sociology
Stable isotope data are making significant contributions to reconstructions of past lifeways by providing information about dietary variability, habitat use, and palaeoecology. Late Holocene hunter‐gatherers from the lower Murray River Basin of South Australia have bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values similar to those for prehistoric lakeshore inhabitants of southern Ontario, Canada. While δ 13 C values indicate a C 3 ‐based terrestrial diet for this Aboriginal riverine population, the addition of δ 15 N data provides more precise dietary discrimination suggesting a focus on local terrestrial mammals such as kangaroos, wombats, and dingoes supplemented by freshwater fish, mussels, and crustaceans. Faunal remains from lower Murray rockshelters also indicate diets based on terrestrial mammals and freshwater fish and shellfish during the Late Holocene. Elevated bone collagen δ 15 N values in the Roonka Flat human population are related to the consumption of local δ 15 N‐enriched foods such as dingoes, terrestrial herbivores, and freshwater fish. With regard to sedentism and territoriality, the stable isotope data indicate limited movement of food and people between the riverine environment and adjacent arid interior and coastal habitats.