Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Integrating Stable Isotope and Zooarchaeological Analyses in Historical Archaeology: A Case Study from the Urban Nineteenth-Century Commonwealth Block Site, Melbourne, Australia

  • Published:
International Journal of Historical Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents the first use of bone collagen stable isotope analyses for the purpose of reconstructing historical animal husbandry and trade practices in Australia. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 51 domesticate and commensal specimens demonstrate that meats consumed at the mid to late nineteenth-century Commonwealth Block site in Melbourne derived from animals with a diverse range of isotopic signatures. Potential factors contributing to this diversity including animal trade and variability in local animal husbandry practices are discussed. From these results we suggest that stable isotope-based paleodietary reconstructions have significant potential to illuminate a variety of human-animal relations in Australia’s historical period as well as other New World contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ambrose, S. H., and DeNiro, M. J. (1986). Reconstruction of African human diet using bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. Nature 319: 321–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H., and Norr, L. (1993). Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of collagen and carbonate. In Lambert, J. B., and Grupe, G. (eds.), Prehistoric bone: archaeology at the molecular level, Springer, Berlin, pp. 1–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anson, T. J. (1996). The effect of climate on stable nitrogen isotope enrichment in modern south Australian mammals, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Master’s thesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anson, T. J. (1998). The effect of climate on stable nitrogen isotope enrichment in modern South Australian mammals. Australian Archaeology 46: 52–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anson, T. J. (2004). The bioarchaeology of the St. Mary’s free ground burials: reconstruction of colonial south Australian lifeways, University of Adelaide, Doctoral dissertation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arge, S. V., Church, M. J., and Brewington, S. D. (2009). Pigs in the Faroe Islands: an ancient facet of the islands’ paleoeconomy. Journal of the North Atlantic 2: 19–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayliffe, L., and Chivas, A. R. (1990). Oxygen isotope composition of the bone phosphate of Australian kangaroos: potential as a palaeoenvironmental recorder. Geochemica et cosmochemica et acta 54: 2603–2609.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balasse, M., and Tresset, A. (2002). Early weaning of Neolithic domestic cattle (Bercy, France) revealed by intra-tooth variation in nitrogen isotope ratios. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 853–859.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balasse, M., Tresset, A., Dobney, K., and Ambrose, S. H. (2005). The use of isotope ratios to test for seaweed eating in sheep. Journal of Zoology 266: 283–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balasse, M., Tresset, A., and Ambrose, S. H. (2006). Stable isotope evidence (δ13C, δ18O) for winter feeding on seaweed by Neolithic sheep of Scotland. Journal of Zoology 270: 170–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balasse, M., Boury, L., Ughetto-Monfrin, J., and Tresset, A. (2012). Stable isotope insights (d18O, d13C) into cattle and sheep husbandry at Bercy (Paris, France, 4th millennium BC): birth seasonality and winter leaf foddering. Environmental Archaeology 17: 29–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaumont, J., Geber, J., Powers, N., Wilson, A., Lee-Thorp, J., and Montgomery, J. (2013). Victims and survivors: stable isotopes used to identify migrants from the Great Irish Famine to 19th century London. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 150: 87–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentley, R. A. (2006). Strontium isotopes from the earth to the archaeological skeleton: a review. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13: 135–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birch, S. E. P. (2013). Stable isotopes in zooarchaeology: an introduction. Archaeological and Anthropological Science 5: 81–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogaard, A., Heaton, T. H. E., Poulton, P., and Merbach, I. (2007). The impact of manuring on nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals: archaeological implications for reconstruction of diet and crop management practices. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 335–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Britton, K., Müldner, G., and Bell, M. (2008). Stable isotope evidence for salt-marsh grazing in the Bronze Age Severn Estuary, UK: implications for palaeodietary analysis at coastal sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2111–2118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brookman, T. H., and Ambrose, S. H. (2012). Seasonal variation in kangaroo tooth enamel oxygen and carbon isotopes in southern Australia. Quaternary Research 78: 256–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burleigh, R., and Brothwell, D. (1978). Studies of Amerindian dogs: carbon isotopes in relation to maize in the diet of domestic dogs from early Peru and Ecuador. Journal of Archaeological Science 5: 355–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, C. P., Seidell, A., Craig, D. P., Boudreaux, E., Burleigh, K. L., Gardner, J. A., Young, S. A., and Danforth, M. E. (2004). A bioarchaeological analysis of the French Colonial burials at the Moran Gallery, Biloxi, MS. Mississippi Archaeology 39: 39–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm, B. S., Nelson, D. E., and Schwarcz, H. P. (1982). Stable-carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine verses terrestrial proteins in ancient diets. Science 216: 1131–1132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coghlan, T. A. (1918). Labour and industry in Australia: from the first settlement in 1788 to the establishment of the commonwealth in 1901, Oxford University Press, London. 4 vols.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, S., and Hobson, K. A. (1987). The importance of marine protein in the diet of coastal Australian Aborigines. Current Anthropology 28: 559–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coltrain, J. B., Harris, J. M., Cerling, T. E., Ehleringer, J. R., Dearing, M., Ward, J., and Allen, J. (2004). Trophic level relationships among Rancho La Brea fauna and their implications for the paleoecology of the late Pleistocene based on bone collagen stable isotope chemistry. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 205: 199–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Commisso, R. E., and Nelson, D. E. (2010). Stable nitrogen isotopic examination of Norse sites in the Western settlement of Greenland. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1322–1240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, G., and Sealy, J. (1997). Investigating identity and life histories: isotopic analysis and historical documentation of slave skeletons found on the Cape Town foreshore. South Africa International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1: 207–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, G., Sealy, J., Schrire, C., and Morris, A. (2001). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of the underclass at the colonial Cape Good Hope in eighteenth centuries. World Archaeology 33: 73–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crader, D. R. (1990). Slave diet at Monticello. American Antiquity 55: 690–717.

    Google Scholar 

  • Craig, H. (1957). The isotope standards for carbon and oxygen and correlation factors for mass spectrometric analysis of carbon dioxide. Geochimica et Cosmchimica Acta 12: 133–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro, M. J. (1985). Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to paleodietary reconstructions. Nature 317: 806–809.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro, M. J., and Epstein, S. (1981). Influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 45: 341–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellerbrok, B. A., Grimes, V., and Parish, J. (2012). Reconstruction of diet and demography of human remains from an eighteenth-century mass burial site at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Paper presented at the 2012 council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, St, John’s, Newfoundland.

    Google Scholar 

  • English, A. J. (1990). Salted meats from the wreck of the William Salthouse: archaeological analysis of nineteenth century butchering patterns. Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology 8: 63–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finucane, B., Agurto, P. M., and Isbell, W. H. (2006). Human and animal diet at Conchopata, Peru: stable isotope evidence for maize agriculture and animal management practices during the Middle Horizon. Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 1766–1776.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, A., and Thomas, R. (2012). Isotopic and zooarchaeological investigation of later medieval and post-medieval cattle husbandry at Dudley Castle, West Midlands. Environmental Archaeology 17: 151–167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes, M. S., Kohn, M. J., Bestland, E. A., and Wells, R. T. (2010). Late Pleistocene environmental change interpreted from δ13C and δ18O of tooth enamel from the Black Creek Swamp megafauna site, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 291: 319–327.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, R. A., Grün, R., Privat, K., and Gagan, M. K. (2008). Stable-isotope microprofiling of wombat tooth enamel records seasonal changes in vegetation and environmental conditions in eastern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 269: 66–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frémondeau, D., Cucchi, T., Casabianca, F., Ughetto-Monfrin, J., Horard-Herbin, M. P., and Balasse, M. (2012). Seasonality of birth and diet of pigs from stable isotope analyses of tooth enamel (δ18O, δ13C): a modern reference data set from Corsica, France. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 2023–2035.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, A. H., Jones, J., Reid, J., Mack, M. E., Blakey, M. L., Amarasiriwardena, D., Burton, P., and Coleman, D. (2009). Isotopic and elemental chemistry of teeth: implications for places of birth, forced migration patterns, nutritional status, and pollution. In Blakey, M. L., and Rankin-Hill, L. M. (eds.), Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground, The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing the African Presence in Colonial New York, Vol. 1, part 1, Howard University, Washington, DC, pp. 95–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimes, V. (2013). The Basque of “Butus”: life at a 16th century whaling enterprise in the New World. Paper presented at the 2013 UK Archaeological Science Conference, Cardiff.

  • Gröcke, D. R. (1997a). Distribution of C3 and C4 plants in the Late Pleistocene of South Australia recorded by isotope biogeochemistry of collagen in megafauna. Australian Journal of Botany 45: 607–617.

  • Gröcke, D. R. (1997b). Stable-isotope studies on the collagenic and hydroxylapatite components of fossils: palaeoecological implications. Lethaia 30: 65–78.

  • Gröcke, D. R., Bocherens, H., and Mariotti, A. (1997). Annual rainfall and nitrogen-isotope correlation in macropod collagen: application as a palaeoprecipitation indicator. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 153: 279–285.

  • Guiry, E. J., Grimes, V., Smith, C., Noël, S., and Tourigny, E. (2012a). Integrating bone chemistry and faunal analyses in historical archaeology: a review and case study from Newfoundland, Paper presented at the 2012 council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, St. John’s, Newfoundland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiry, E. J., Noël, S., Tourigny, E., and Grimes, V. (2012b). A stable isotope method for identifying transatlantic origin of pig (Sus scrofa) remains at French and English fishing stations in Newfoundland. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 2012–2022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guiry, E. J., Noël, S., and Tourigny, E. (2012c). Stable isotope bone chemistry and human-animal interactions in historical archaeology. Northeastern Historical Archaeology 41: 126–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurlday, J. E. (1977). Animal remains from archaeological excavations at Fort Ligonier. In Ingersoll, D., Yellen, J. C., and Macdonald, D. (eds.), Experimental Archaeology, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 91–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, J., and Thomas, R. (2012). Pannage, pulses and pigs: isotopic and zooarchaeological evidence for changing pig management practices in later Medieval England. Medieval Archaeology 56: 234–258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hattersley, P. W. (1983). The distribution of C3 and C4 grasses in Australia in relation to climate. Oecologia 57: 113–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heaton, T. H. E., and Vogel, J. C. (1986). Climatic influences on the isotopic composition of bone nitrogen. Nature 322: 822–823.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges, R. E. M., and Reynard, M. (2007). Nitrogen isotopes and the trophic level of humans in archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1240–1251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges, R. E. M., Clement, J. G., Thomas, D. L., and O’Connell, T. C. (2007). Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133: 808–816.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hitchson, B., and Krouse, H. R. (1972). Hydrogeochemistry of the surface waters of the Mackenzie surface drainage basin, Canada-III. Stable isotopes of oxygen, carbon, and sulphur. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 36: 1337–1357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, K. A., and Collier, S. (1984). Marine and terrestrial protein in Australian Aboriginal diets. Current Anthropology 25: 238–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honch, N. V., Higham, T. F. G., Chapman, J., Gaydarska, B., and Hedges, R. E. M. (2006). A paleodietary investigation of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15 N/14N) in human and faunal bones from copper Age cemeteries of Varna I and duankulak, Bulgaria. Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 1493–1504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jørkov, M. L. S., Heinemeier, J., and Lynnerup, N. (2007). Evaluating bone collagen extraction methods for stable isotope analysis in dietary studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1824–1829.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanstrup, M., Thomsen, I. K., Andersen, A. J., Bogaard, A., and Christensen, B. T. (2011). Abundance of 13C and 15 N in emmer, spelt and naked barley grown on differently manured soils: towards a method for identifying past manuring practice. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 25: 2879–2887.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg, M. A. (1991a). Analysis of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. In Pfeiffer, S., and Williamson, R. F. (eds.), Snake hill: an investigation of a military cemetery from the War of 1812, Dundas Press, Toronto, pp. 247–255.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg, M. A. (1991b). Stable isotope analysis of remains from the Harvie family. In Saunders, S., and Lazenby, R. (eds.), The links that bind: the Harvie family nineteenth century burying ground, Copetown Press, Dundas, Ontario, pp. 65–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg, M. A. (2008). Stable isotope analysis: a tool for studying past diet, demography, and life history. In Katzenberg, M. A., and Saunders, S. R. (eds.), Biological anthropology of the human skeleton, Wiley-Liss, New York, pp. 387–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg, M. A., and Pfeiffer, S. (1995). Nitrogen isotope evidence for weaning age in a nineteenth century Canadian Skeletal sample. In Grauer, A. L. (ed.), Bodies of evidence: reconstructing history through skeletal analyses, John Wiley, NewYork, pp. 221–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg, M. A., Saunders, S. R., and Abinyi, S. (2000). Bone chemistry, food, and history: a case study from 19th century Upper Canada. In Ambrose, S. H. (ed.), Biogeochemical approaches to paleodietary analysis, Kluwer, New York, pp. 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klipple, W. E. (2001). Sugar monoculture, bovid skeletal part frequencies, and stable carbon isotopes: interpreting enslaved African diet at Brimstone Hill, St Kitts, West Indies. Journal of Archaeological Science 28: 1191–1198.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krigbaum, J., Kamenov, G., Valentine, B., and Anderson, G. (2013). Multiple isotope and trace element proxies to infer life history of mid-19th century human skeletal remains from New Haven Connecticut. Paper presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Honolulu.

  • Lane, S. (1995). Archaeological investigation of the cottage at 17 casselden place. A report to the heritage and environment group of Australian construction services, Du Cros and Associates, Archaeological and Heritage Consultants, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, S., and Tucker, C. (2002). Sources of meat in colonial diets: faunal evidence from two nineteenth-century Tasmanian whaling stations. Environmental Archaeology 7: 23–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, G. M., et al. (2004). Casselden place (50 Lonsdale street, Melbourne) archaeological excavations research archive report, 4 vols, Godden Mackay Logan, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, A., Williamson, C., Goulding, M., and Howell-Meurs, J. (2001). Casselden place development phase 3: archaeological planning report. A report to industry superannuation property trustees, Andrew Long and Associates Archaeological and Heritage Consultants, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madgwick, R., Mulville, J., and Stevens, R. E. (2012). Diversity in foddering strategy and herd management in late bronze Age Britain: an isotopic investigation of pigs and other fauna from two midden sites. Environmental Archaeology 17: 126–140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marino, B. D., and McElroy, M. B. (1991). Isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 inferred from carbon in C4 plant cellulose. Nature 349: 127–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mariotti, A., Pierre, P. D., Vedy, J. C., Bruckert, S., and Guillemot, J. (1980). The abundance of natural nitrogen 15 in the organic matter of soils along an altitudinal gradient. Catena 7: 293–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. (1989). Archaeological investigation: commonwealth offices and telecom corporate building sites, The commonwealth block, Melbourne, Victoria, The Department of Administrative Services and Telecom Australia, Melbourne, Victoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. (1990). Archaeological investigation, Site B, the black eagle & oddfellows hotels, the commonwealth block, Melbourne, Victoria, The Department of Administrative Services, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, J. J., Donlon, D., Field, J. H., Fullagar, R. K. L., Coltrain, J. B., Mitchell, P., and Rawson, M. (2007). First prehistoric evidence for death by spearing in Australia. Antiquity 81: 877–885.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millard, R., Jimenez-Cano, N. G., Lebrasseur, O., and Sakai, Y. (2013). Isotopic investigation of animal husbandry in the Welsh and English periods at Dryslwyn Castle, Carmarthenshire, Wales. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 23: 640–650.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müldner, G., Chenery, C., and Eckardt, H. (2011). The “headless Romans”: multi-isotope investigations of an unusual burial ground from Roman Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 280–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulville, J., Madgwick, R., Stevens, R. E., O'Connell, T., Craig, O., Powell, A., Sharples, N., and Pearson, M. P. (2009). Isotopic analysis of faunal material from South Uist, Western Isles, Scotland. Journal of the North Atlantic 2: 51–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, B. P., Bowman, D. M. J. S., and Gagan, M. K. (2007). Sources of carbon isotope variation in kangaroo bone collagen and tooth enamel. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71: 3847–3858.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, T. (2006). Introduction. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 10: 297–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, T., and Mayne, A. (2003). (Re) constructing a lost community: “Little Lon”, Melbourne, Australia. Historical Archaeology 37: 87–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nash, M. (2001). Cargo for the colony: the 1797 wreck of the merchant ship Sydney cove, Navarine, Hobart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nehlich, O., Fuller, B. T., Marquez-Grant, N., and Richards, M. P. (2012). Investigation of diachronic dietary patterns on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, Spain: evidence from sulfur stable isotope ratio analysis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 149: 115–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, D. E., Heinemeier, J., Møhl, J., and Arneborg, J. (2012). Isotopic analyses of the domestic animals of Norse Greenland. Journal of the North Atlantic 3: 77–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble, A. H. (1995). An analysis of stable carbon isotope variation within animal bone collagen along the eastern border of South Australia. BA honours thesis, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.

  • Oelze, V. M., Siebert, A., Nicklisch, N., Meller, H., Dresely, V., and Alt, K. W. (2011). Early Neolithic diet and animal husbandry: stable isotope evidence from three Linearbandkeramik (LBK) sites in Central Germany. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 270–279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owsley, D. W., Bruwelheide, K. S., Cartmell, L. W., Burgess, L. E., Foote, S. J., Chang, S. M., and Fielder, N. (2006). The man in the iron coffin: an interdisciplinary effort to name the past. Historical Archaeology 40: 89–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Page, M. D. (2007). Dietary reconstruction through stable isotope analysis at the Moran french colonial cemetery on the Mississippi gulf coast, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. Master’s thesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1994). Bone chemistry and paleodiet. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 161–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1995a). Stable carbon isotope assessment of hunter-gatherer mobility in prehistoric South Australia. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 81–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1995b). Palaeodietary inferences from bone collagen stable carbon isotopes at Roonka Flat, South Australia. Australian Archaeology 40: 57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1997a). Bone chemistry and paleodiet: reconstructing prehistoric subsistence-settlement systems in Australia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 16: 103–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1997b). Bone collagen diagenesis at Roonka Flat, South Australia: implications for isotopic analysis. Archaeology in Oceania 32: 170–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1998a). Bone collagen stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes as indicators of past human diet and landscape use in southeastern South Australia. Australian Archaeology 46: 23–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1998b). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope evidence for prehistoric hunter-gatherer diet in the Lower Murray River Basin, South Australia. Archaeology in Oceania 33: 92–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (1998c). Bone collagen preservation at the Roonka Flat Aboriginal burial ground: a natural laboratory. Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 203–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D. (2000). Bone chemistry and paleodiet: bioarchaeological research at Roonka Flat, Lower Murray River, South Australia, 1983–1999. Australian Archaeology 50: 67–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., and Anson, J. (2008). Stable nitrogen isotope values in arid-land kangaroos correlated with mean annual rainfall: potential as a palaeoclimatic indicator. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 18: 317–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., and Anson, J. (2012). Stable isotopes and dietary composition in the mid-late 19th century Anglican population, Adelaide, South Australia. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia 35: 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., and Krull, E. (2007). Carbon isotope discrimination by C3 pasture grasses along a rainfall gradient in South Australia. Quaternary Australasia 24: 29–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., and Noble, A. H. (2000). Geographic distribution of C3 and C4 grasses recorded from stable carbon isotope values of bone collagen of South Australian herbivores. Australian Journal of Botany 48: 203–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., and Schoeninger, M. J. (1993). Stable carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen as indicators of marine and terrestrial dietary composition in southeastern South Australia: a preliminary report. In Fankhauser, B. L., and Bird, J. R. (eds.), Archaeometry: current Australian research, Australian National University, Canberra, pp. 38–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., Anson, T. J., Schoeninger, M. J., and Noble, A. H. (1998). Bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope variability in modern South Australian mammals: a baseline for palaeoecological inferences. Quaternary Australasia 16: 43–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pate, F. D., Brodie, R., and Owen, T. D. (2002). Determination of geographic origin of unprovenanced Aboriginal skeletal remains in South Australia employing stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Australian Archaeology 55: 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, J. A., Buitenhuis, H., Hedges, R. E. M., Martin, L., Russell, N., and Twiss, K. C. (2007). New light on early caprine herding strategies from isotope analysis: a case study from Neolithic Anatolia. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 2170–2179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peck-Janssen, S. M. (2006). Animal husbandry at tell el hesi (Israel): results for zooarchaeological and isotopic analysis, University of South Florida, Tampa, Master’s thesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, T. D., Burton, J. H., Cucina, A., Zabala, P., Frei, R., Tykot, R. H., and Tiesler, V. (2012). Isotopic studies of human skeletal remains from a sixteenth to seventeenth century AD churchyard in Campeche, Mexico: diet, place of origin, and age. Current Anthropology 54: 396–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prideaux, G. V., Ayliffe, L. K., DeSantis, L. R. G., Schubert, B. W., Murray, P. F., Gaganc, M. K., and Cerling, T. E. (2009). Extinction implications of a chenopod browse diet for a giant Pleistocene kangaroo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 106: 11646–11650.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawlings, T. A., and Driver, J. C. (2010). Paleodiet of domestic turkey, Shields Pueblo (5MT3807), Colorado: isotopic analysis and its implications for care of a household domesticate. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 2433–2441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, M. P., and Hedges, R. E. M. (1999). Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine foods used by Late Mesolithic humans at sites along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 717–722.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rixson, D. (2000). The history of meat trading, Nottingham University Press, Nottingham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, A. L., and Pate, F. D. (2012). Editorial. Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia 35: ii.

  • Roberts, A. L., Pate, F. D., and Hunter, R. (1999). Late Holocene climatic changes recorded in macropod bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes at Fromm’s Landing, South Australia. Australian Archaeology 49: 48–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, A. J., and Edmonds, K. C. (1979). Historical an architectural development of the commonwealth centre site bounded by spring, Lonsdale, exhibition and La Trobe streets, Melbourne 1837–1978. Commonwealth department of housing and construction, Victoria-Tasmania Region, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger, M. J., DeNiro, M. J., and Tauber, H. (1983). Stable nitrogen isotope ratios reflect marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. Science 220: 1381–1383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, H., O’Connell, T. C., Evans, J. A., Shuler, K. A., and Hedges, R. E. M. (2009). Trans-Atlantic slavery: isotopic evidence for forced migration to Barbados. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139: 547–557.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schurr, M. R. (1998). Using stable nitrogen-isotopes to study weaning behavior in past populations. World Archaeology 30: 327–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz, H. P., Gibbs, L., and Knyf, M. (1991). Oxygen isotope analysis as an indicator of place of origin. In Pfeiffer, S., and Williamson, R. F. (eds.), Snake hill: an investigation of a military cemetery from the War of 1812, Dundas Press, Toronto, pp. 263–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sealy, J. (1993). An historic skeleton from the slave lodge at Vergelegen. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 7: 84–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sealy, J. C. (2001). Body tissue chemistry and paleodiet. In Brothwell, D. R., and Pollard, A. M. (eds.), Handbook of archaeological sciences, John Wiley, Chichester, UK, pp. 269–279.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, A., and Maitri, M. (2006). The food remains from Casselden Place, Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 10: 357–373.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparks, H., Varney, T. L., Courtaud, P., Romon, T., and Watters, D. (2012). Reconstructing the diet of the enslaved from two archaeological sites (Guadeloupe and Montserrat). Caribbean Connections 2(1): 34–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Staniforth, M. (2000). Wreck of the William Salthouse, 1841: early trade between Canada and Australia. Urban History Review 18: 19–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Staniforth, M. (2007). William Salthouse 1841: barrels, beef, and bottles. In Nash, M. (ed.), Shipwreck archaeology in Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, pp. 99–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, R. E., Lightfoot, E., Hamilton, J., Cunliffe, B., and Hedges, R. E. M. (2013). One for the master and one for the dame: stable isotope investigations of Iron Age animal husbandry in the Danebury environs. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 5: 95–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stodart, E., and Parer, I. (1988). Colonisation of Australia by the rabbit oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), Commonwealth Scientific and industrial Research Organization, Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, D. (2001). Stable isotope ratio analysis of the human bone retrieved from St. Mary's churchyard and chemical analysis of the surrounding soil. BSc. Honours thesis. Department of Forensic and Analytical Chemistry, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.

  • Tieszen, L., and Fagre, T. (1993a). Effect of diet quality and composition on the isotopic composition of respired CO2, collagen, bioapatite and soft tissues. In Lambert, J. B., and Grupe, G. (eds.), Prehistoric bone: archaeology at the molecular level, Springer, Berlin, pp. 121–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tieszen, L. L., and Fagre, T. (1993b). Carbon isotope variability in modern and archaeological maize. Journal of Archaeological Science 20: 25–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Towers, J., Jay, M., Mainland, I., Nehlich, O., and Montgomery, J. (2011). A calf for all seasons? the potential of stable isotope analysis to investigate prehistoric husbandry practices. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 1858–1868.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ubelaker, D. H., and Owsley, D. W. (2003). Isotopic evidence for diet in the seventeenth-century colonial Chesapeake. American Antiquity 68: 129–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Merwe, N. J., and Vogel, J. C. (1978). 13C content and human bone collagen as a measure of prehistoric diet in Woodland North America. Nature 276: 815–816.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Klinken, G. J. (1999). Bone collagen quality indicators for paleodietary and radiocarbon measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 687–695.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Klinken, G. J., Richards, M. P., and Hedges, R. E. M. (2000). An overview of causes of for stable isotopic variation in past European human populations: environmental, ecophysiological, and cultural effects. In Ambrose, S. H., and Katzenberg, M. A. (eds.), Biogeochemical approaches to paleodietary analysis, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp. 39–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderklift, M. A., and Ponsard, S. (2003). Sources of variation in consumer-diet δ15N enrichment: a meta-analysis. Oecologia 136: 169–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderpool, E. (2011). Bioarchaeological investigations of community and identity at the Avondale Burial Place (McArthur Cemetery), Bibb County, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Master’s thesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varney, T. L. (2003). Reconstructing diet and tracing life histories in colonial populations of the northeastern Caribbean using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary, Calgary.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varney, T. L. (2007). Does diet reflect group membership? a stable isotope analysis of human remains from the royal naval hospital cemetery at english harbour, Antigua, W.I. Proceedings of the XXI International Congress for Caribbean Archaeology, Trinidad, 2005 2: 667–676.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wescott, D. J., Brinsko, K., Faerman, M., Golda, S. D., Nichols, J., Spigelman, M., Stewart, B., Streeter, M., Tykot, R. H., and Zamstein, L. (2010). A fisk patent metallic burial case from Western Missouri: an interdisciplinary and comprehensive effort to reconstruct the history of an early settler of Lexington, Missouri. Archaeological and Anthropological Science 2: 283–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiseman, J. (2000). The Pig: A British history, Duckbacks, London.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Guidance, sampling permissions, and technical assistance have been provided by Charlotte Smith from Museum Victoria, Tim Murray, Susan Lawrence, and Dylan Cosgrove from LaTrobe University and Vaughan Grimes and Alison Pye from Memorial University. This work has been made possible through funds provided by an Endeavour Research Fellowship to EG and a grant from the Smallwood Foundation. CS would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council (Future Fellowship Grant Number: FT0992258). Charlotte Smith, Tim Murray, and BH would also like to thank the Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant Number: LP0989224).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada

    Eric J. Guiry

  2. Department of Archaeology, Environment and Community Planning, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia

    Bernice Harpley, Zachary Jones & Colin Smith

Authors
  1. Eric J. Guiry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bernice Harpley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zachary Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Colin Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric J. Guiry.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Guiry, E.J., Harpley, B., Jones, Z. et al. Integrating Stable Isotope and Zooarchaeological Analyses in Historical Archaeology: A Case Study from the Urban Nineteenth-Century Commonwealth Block Site, Melbourne, Australia. Int J Histor Archaeol 18, 415–440 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-014-0264-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-014-0264-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation