Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Stable Isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen as Tracers for Paleo-Diet Reconstruction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry

Part of the book series: Advances in Isotope Geochemistry ((ADISOTOPE))

Abstract

The isotopic compositions of the tissues of animals and humans are determined by the proportions of the various nutrients which they consume. This allows us to determine how much of each of their available foods were actually consumed over various parts of their lifetime. We apply this to ancient humans by analysis of bones, teeth and, rarely desiccated softer tissues (hair, skin). We review variations in δ13C and δ15N of known classes of nutrients (plants and animals), and discuss the chemical species whose isotopic composition can be analysed: collagen, bone-mineral, and lipids (cholesterol, etc.). Some variation in δ15N also arises from variations in δ15N of soil, particulate matter in the sea, and effect of aridity on N balance in terrestrial animals. Examples are presented of variation in δ13C due to consumption of maize (a C4 plant) and in δ15N due to trophic level effects in prehistoric hunter-gatherers.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aiello LC, Wheeler P (1995) The expensive-tissue hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution. Curr Anthrop 36:199–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose SH (1990) Preparation and characterization of bone and tooth collagen for isotopic analysis. J Archaeol Sci 17:431–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose S, Katzenberg MA (eds) (2000) Biogeochemical approaches to paleodietary analysis. Kluwer Academic, New York, p 269

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Balasse M, Ambrose SH, Smith AB, Price TD (2002) The seasonal mobility model for prehistoric herders in the south-western Cape of South Africa assessed by isotopic analysis of sheep tooth enamel. J Archaeol Sci 29:917–932

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrett JH, Richards MP (2004) Evidence for marine resource intensification in identity, gender, religion and economy: new isotope and radiocarbon evidence in early historic Orkney, Scotland UK. Eur J Archaeol 7:249

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilezikian, John P. Raisz, Lawrence G Martin T. John (eds) (2008) Principles of bone biology. 3rd ed. Elsevier, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Bocherens H, Drucker DG, Billiou D, Patou-Mathis M, Vandermeersch B (2005) Isotopic evidence for diet and subsistence pattern of the Saint-Césaire I Neanderthal: review and use of a multi-source mixing model. J Hum Evol 49:71–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannon A, Schwarcz HP, Knyf M (1999) Marine-based subsistence trends and the stable-isotope analysis of dog bones from Namu, British Columbia. J Archaeol Sci 26:399–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Cerling TE, Harris J, Passey B (2003) Diets of East African bovidae based on stable isotope analyses. J Mammal 84:456–470

    Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm BS, Nelson DE, Schwarcz HP (1982) Stable carbon isotope ratios as a measure of marine versus terrestrial protein in ancient diets. Science 216:1131–1132

    Google Scholar 

  • Corr LT, Sealy JC, Horton MC, Evershed RP (2005) A novel marine dietary indicator utilizing compound-specific bone collagen amino acid δ13C values of ancient humans. J Archaeol Sci 32:321–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Corr LT, Richards MP, Jim S, Ambrose SH, Mackie A, Beattie O, Evershed RP (2008) Probing dietary change of the Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi individual, an ancient glacier body from British Columbia: I. Complementary use of marine lipid biomarker and carbon isotope signatures as novel indicators of a marine diet. J Archaeol Sci 35:2102–2110

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ, Epstein S (1978) Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 42:495–506

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ, Epstein S (1981) Influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 45:341–351

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ, Weiner S (1988) Organic matter within crystalline aggregates of hydroxyapatite: A new substrate for stable isotopic and possibly other biochemical analyses of bone. Geochim. Cosmochim Acta 52:2415–2423

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ (1985) Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317:806–809

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro MJ, Schoeninger MJ, Hastorf CA (1985) Effect of heating on the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of bone collagen. J Archaeol Sci 12:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Dudd SN, Evershed RP (1998) Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies. Science 282:1478–1481

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans RD (2007) Soil nitrogen isotope composition. In: Mitchener R, Lajtha, K (eds) Stable Isotopes in Ecology and Environmental Science. 2nd Ed. Blackwell, Oxford, 83–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans RD (2008) Soil nitrogen isotope composition. In: Michener RH, Lajtha K (eds) Stable isotopes in ecology and environmental science, 2nd edn. Wiley, Chichester, pp 83–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Evershed RP (2008) Organic residue analysis in archaeology: the archaeological biomarker revolution. Archaeometry 50:895–924

    Google Scholar 

  • Farquhar GD, Ehleringer JR, Hubick KT (1989) Carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 40:503–537

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel ML, Tuross N, Johnson BJ, Miller GH (1997) Biogeochemical record of ancient humans. Org Geochem 27:275–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel ML, Tuross N (2003) Extending the limits of paleodietary studies of humans with compound specific carbon isotope analysis of amino acids. J Archaeol Sci 30:535–545

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry B, Jeng WL, Scalan RS, Parker PL, Baccus J (1978) δ13C food web analysis of a Texas sand community. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 42:1299–1302

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry B (2006) Stable isotope ecology. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller BT, Richards MP, Mays SA (2003) Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope variation in tooth dentine serial sectionals from Wharram Percy. J Archaeol Sci 30:1673–1684

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo L, Tanaka T, Wang D, Tanaka N, Murata A (2004) Distributions, speciation and stable isotope composition of organic matter in the southeastern Bering Sea. Mar Chem 91:211–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison RG, Katzenberg MA (2003) Paleodiet studies using stable carbon isotopes from bone apatite and collagen: examples from Southern Ontario and San Nicolas Island, California. J Anthropol Arch 22:227–244

    Google Scholar 

  • Hastorf CA, DeNiro MJ (1985) Reconstruction of prehistoric plant production and cooking practices by a new isotopic method. Nature 315:489–491

    Google Scholar 

  • Heaton JHE, Vogel JC, von la Chevallerie G, Collet G (1986) Climatic influence on the isotopic composition of bone nitrogen. Nature 322:822–823

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges REH, van Klinken G (2000) “Consider a spherical cow ⋯” – on modeling and diet. In: Ambrose S, Katzenberg MA (eds) Biogeochemical approaches to paleodietary analysis. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 211–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges REM, Reynard L (2007) Nitrogen isotopes and the trophic level of humans in archaeology. J Archaeol Sci 34:1240–1251

    Google Scholar 

  • Hedges REM, Clement JG, Thomas CDL, O’Connell TC (2007) Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. Am J Phys Anthropol 133(2):808–816

    Google Scholar 

  • Howland MR, Corr LT, Young SM, Jones V, Jim S, van der Merwe NJ, Mitchell AD, Evershed RP (2003) Expression of the dietary isotope signal in the compound-specific δ13C values of pig bone lipids and amino acids. Int J Osteoarch 13:54–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu Y, Shang H, Tong H, Nehlich O, Liu W, Zhao C, Yu J, Wang C, Trinkaus E, Richards M (2009) Stable isotope dietary analysis of the Tianyuan 1 early modern human. Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 106:10971–10974

    Google Scholar 

  • Jim S, Ambrose SH, Evershed RP (2004) Stable carbon isotopic evidence for differences in the dietary origin of bone cholesterol, collagen and apatite: implications for their use in palaeodietary reconstruction. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 68:61–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg MS (2000) Stable isotope analysis: a tool for studying past diet, demography and life history. In: Katzenberg MA, Saunders SR (eds) The biological anthropology of the human skeleton. Wiley, New York, pp 305–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg MA, Schwarcz HP, Knyf M, Melbye FJ (1995) Stable isotope evidence for maize horticulture and paleodiet in southern Ontario, Canada. Am Antiquity 60:335–350

    Google Scholar 

  • Katzenberg MA, Herring DA, Saunders SR (1996) Weaning and infant mortality: evaluating the skeletal evidence. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 39:177–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenleyside A, Schwarcz HP, Stirling L, Lazreg NB (2008) Stable isotopic evidence for diet in a Roman and late Roman population from Leptiminus, Tunisia. J Archaeol Sci 36:51–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner CM, Schoeninger MJ (2007) A simple carbon isotope model for reconstructing human diet. Am J Phys Anthropol 133:1112–1127

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellner CM, Schoeninger M, Spielmann KA, Moore K (2010) Stable isotope data show temporal stability in diet at Pecos Pueblo and diet variation among southwest Pueblos. In: Morgan ME (ed) Pecos revisited. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp 79–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Krueger HW, Sullivan CH (1984) Models for carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bone. In: Turnlund JE, Johnson PE (eds) Stable isotopes in nutrition. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 258. American Chemical Society, Washington, pp 205–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Lebon M, Reiche I, Bahain J-J, Chadefaux C, Moigne A-M, Fröhlich F, Sémah F, Schwarcz H, Falguères C (2010) New parameters for the characterization of diagenetic alterations and heat-induced changes of fossil bone mineral using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry. J Archaeol Sci 37:2265–2276

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee-Thorp JA, Sealy JC, van der Merwe NJ (1989) Stable carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and bone apatite, and their relationship to diet. J Archaeol Sci 16:585–599

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee-Thorp JA, van der Merwe NJ, Brain CK (1994) Diet of Australopithecus robustus at Swartkrans from stable carbon isotopic analysis. J Hum Evol 27:361

    Google Scholar 

  • Little EA, Schoeninger MJ (1995) The late Woodland diet on Nantucket Island and the problem of maize in coastal New England. Am Antiquity 60:351–368

    Google Scholar 

  • Manolagas S (2000) Birth and death of bone cells: basic regulatory mechanisms and implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis. Endocr Rev 21:115–137

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Masters PM (1987) Preferential preservation of noncollagenous protein during bone diagenesis: implications for chronometric and stable isotopic measurements. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 51:3209–3214

    Google Scholar 

  • Minagawa M, Wada E (1984) Stepwise enrichment of 15N along food chains: further evidences and the relation between δ15N and animal age. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:1135–1140

    Google Scholar 

  • Miracle P, Milner N (2008) Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption. [electronic resource] Cambridge UK, McDonald for Archaeological Research, Institute, Ebooks Corporation

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore JW, Semmens BX (2008) Incorporating uncertainty and prior information into stable isotope mixing models. Ecol Lett 11:470–480

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton J, Schwarcz HP (2004) Paleodietary implications from isotopic analysis of food residues on prehistoric Ontario ceramics. J Archaeol Sci 31:503–517

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy BP, Bowman DMJS (2009) The carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of Australian grasses in relation to climate. Funct Ecol 23:1040–1049

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray M, Schoeninger MJ (1988) Diet, status, and complex social structure in Iron Age Central Europe: some contributions of bone chemistry. In: Gibson B, Geselowitz M (eds) Tribe and polity in late prehistoric Europe. Plenum Press, New York, pp 157–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Naito YI, Honch NV, Chikaraishi Y, Ohkouchi N, Yoneda M (2010) Quantitative evaluation of marine protein contribution in ancient diets based on nitrogen isotope ratios of individual amino acids in bone collagen: an investigation at the Kitakogane Jomon site. Am J Phys Anth 143:31–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Newsome SD, Phillips DL, Culleton BJ, Guilderson TP, Koch PL (2004) Dietary reconstruction of an early to middle Holocene human population from the central California coast: insights from advanced stable isotope mixing models. J Archaeol Sci 31:1101–1115

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell TC, Hedges REM (1999) Isotopic composition of hair and bone: archaeological analyses. J Archaeol Sci 26:661–665

    Google Scholar 

  • Passey B, Robinson TF, Ayliffe LK, Cerling TE, Sponheimer MM, Dearing D, Roeder BL, Ehleringer JR (2005) Carbon isotope fractionation between diet, breath CO2, and bioapatite in different mammals. J Archaeol Sci 32:1459–1470

    Google Scholar 

  • Pechenkina EA, Ambrose SH, Xiaolin M, Benfer RA Jr (2005) Reconstructing northern Chinese Neolithic subsistence practices by isotopic analysis. J Archaeol Sci 32:1176–1189

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson BJ, Fry B (1987) Stable isotopes in ecosystem studies. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 18:293–320

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeiffer S, Sealy J (2006) Body size among Holocene foragers of the Cape Ecozone, southern Africa. Am J Phys Anth 129:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips DL, Gregg JW (2003) Source partitioning using stable isotopes: coping with too many sources. Oecologia 136:261–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Prowse T, Schwarcz HP, Saunders S, Macchiarelli R, Bondioli L (2003) Isotopic paleodiet studies of skeletons from the Imperial Roman-age cemetery of Isola Sacra, Rome, Italy. J Archaeol Sci 31:259–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards MP (2009) Stable isotope evidence for European Upper Paleolithic human diets. In:Hublin J-J, Richards MP. The Evolution of Hominin Diets, Springer, Berlin, 251–258

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards MP, Trinkaus E (2009) Isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans. PNAS 106:16034–16039

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards MP, Schulting RJ, Hedges REM (2003) Sharp shift in diet at the onset of the Neolithic. Nature 425:366

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards MP, Pettitt PB, Trinkaus E, Smith FE, Paunovic M, Karavanic I (2000) Neanderthal diet at Vindija and Neanderthal predation: the evidence from stable isotopes. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 97:7663–7666

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs JP, Repeta DJ, Goericke R (1999) Nitrogen and carbon isotopic ratios of chlorophyll from marine phytoplankton. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 63:1431–1441

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger MJ, DeNiro MJ (1984) Nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios of bone collagen reflect marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48:625–639

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger MJ, Moore K (1992) Bone stable isotope studies in archaeology. J World Prehistory 6:247–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger MJ, Moore KM, Murray ML (1989) Detection of bone preservation in archaeological and fossil samples. J Appl Geochem 4:281–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger MJ, Moore J, Sept JM (1999) Subsistence strategies of two ‘savanna’ chimpanzee populations: the stable isotope evidence. Am J Primatol 47:297–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoeninger MJ, van der Merwe NJ, Moore K, Lee-Thorp J, Larsen CS (1990) Decrease in diet quality between the prehistoric and contact periods. In: Larsen CS (ed) The Archaeology of Mission Santa Catalina de Guale: 2. Biocultural Interpretations of a Population in Transition. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 68. pp 78–93, American Museum of Natural History, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Schurr MR (1998) Using stable nitrogen isotopes to study weaning behavior in past populations. World Archaeol 30:327–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz HP (1991) Some theoretical aspects of isotope paleodiet studies. J Archaeol Sci 18:261–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz HP, Melbye J, Katzenberg MA, Knyf M (1985) Stable isotopes in human skeletons of southern Ontario: reconstructing paleodiet. J Archaeol Sci 12:187–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz HP, Schoeninger M (1991) Stable isotope analyses in human nutritional ecology. Yearb Phys Anthropol 34:283–321

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz HP, White CD (2004) The grasshopper or the ant? Cultigen-use strategies in ancient Nubia from C-13 analyses of human hair. J Archaeol Sci 31:753–762

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarcz HP, Dupras T, Fairgrieve SI (1999) 15N enrichment in the Sahara: in search of a global relationship. J Archaeol Sci 26:629–636

    Google Scholar 

  • Semmens BX, Moore JW (2008) MixSIR (Version 1.0) http://conserver.iugo-cafe.org/node/870/download (accessed June 3 2011)

  • Smith CI, Fuller BT, Choy K, Richards MP (2009) A three-phase liquid chromatographic method for δ13C analysis of amino acids from biological protein hydrolysates using liquid chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Anal Biochem 390:165–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Spangenberg JE, Jacomet S, Schibler J (2006) Chemical analyses of organic residues in archaeological pottery from Arbon Bleiche 3, Switzerland – evidence for dairying in the late Neolithic. J Archaeol Sci 33:1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Sponheimer M, Lee-Thorp JA (1999) Isotopic evidence for the diet of an early hominid, Australopithecus africanus. Science 283:368–370

    Google Scholar 

  • Sponheimer M, Robinson TF, Roeder BL, Passey BH, Ayliffe LK, Cerling TE, Dearing MD, Ehleringer JR (2003) An experimental study of nitrogen flux in llamas: is 14N preferentially excreted? J Archaeol Sci 30:1649–1655

    Google Scholar 

  • Stafford TW Jr, Brendel K, Duhamel RC (1988) Radiocarbon, 13C and 15N analysis of fossil bone: removal of humates with XAD-2 resin. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 52:2257–2267

    Google Scholar 

  • Stott AW, Evershed RP, Jim S, JonesV RJM, Tuross N, Ambrose S (1999) Cholesterol as a new source of palaeodietary information: experimental approaches and archaeological applications. J Archaeol Sci 26:705–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Steele KW, Daniel RMJ (1978) Fractionation of nitrogen isotopes by animals: a further complication to the use of variations in the natural abundance of 15N for tracer studies. J Agric Sci 90:7–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart-Williams H, Schwarcz HP, White C, Spence M (1996) The isotopic composition and diagenesis of human bone at Teotihuacan and Oaxaca, Mexico. Paleogeogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 126:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Suess HE (1955) Radiocarbon concentration in modern wood. Science 122:415–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Tauber H (1981) 13C evidence for dietary habits of prehistoric man in Denmark. Nature 292:332–333

    Google Scholar 

  • Tieszen L, Fagre T (1993) Effect of diet quality and composition on the isotopic composition of respiratory CO2, bone collagen, bioapatite, and soft tissues. In: Lambert JB, Grupe G (eds) Prehistoric human bone: archaeology at the molecular level. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Trueman CN, Privat K, Field J (2008) Why do crystallinity values fail to predict the extent of diagenetic alteration of bone mineral? Palaeogeog Palaeoclim Palaeoecol 266:160–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Ungar PS, Teaford M (2002) Human diet: its origin and evolution. Bergin & Garvey, Westport, p 206

    Google Scholar 

  • Urey HC (1947) The thermodynamic properties of isotopic substances. J Chem Soc 1947, 562–581

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Federal Register (2010) Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee, Findings Related to the Identity of Cultural Items in the Possession of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, Federal Register, Notices, Vol. 75, No. 67/Thursday, April 8, 2010

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Merwe NJ, Medina E (1991) The canopy effect, carbon isotope ratios and foodwebs in Amazonia. J Archaeol Sci 18:249–259

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Merwe NJ, Vogel JC (1978) 13C content of human collagen as a measure of prehistoric diet in woodland North America. Nature 276:815–816

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel J, van der Merwe N (1977) Isotopic evidence for early maize cultivation in New York State. Am Antiquity 42:238–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker PL, DeNiro M (1986) Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen as indices of prehistoric dietary dependence on marine and terrestrial resources in Southern California. Am J Phys Anthropol 71:51–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace BP, Seminoff JA, Kilham SS, Spotila JR, Dutton PH (2006) Leatherback turtles as oceanographic indicators: stable isotope analyses reveal a trophic dichotomy between ocean basins. Mar Biol 149:953–960

    Google Scholar 

  • Warinner C, Tuross N (2009) Alkaline cooking and stable isotope tissue-diet spacing in swine: archaeological implications. J Archaeol Sci 36(8):1690–1697

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright LE, Schwarcz HP (1998) Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in human tooth enamel: identifying breast-feeding in prehistory. Am J Phys Anthropol 106:1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoneyama T, Ohta Y, Ohtani T (1983) Variations of natural δ13C and δ15N abundances in the rat tissues and their correlation. Radioisotopes 32:330–332

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    H. P. Schwarcz

  2. University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gillman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    M. J. Schoeninger

Authors
  1. H. P. Schwarcz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. J. Schoeninger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. P. Schwarcz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Geology, Wayne State University, Detroit, 48202, Michigan, USA

    Mark Baskaran

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Schwarcz, H.P., Schoeninger, M.J. (2012). Stable Isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen as Tracers for Paleo-Diet Reconstruction. In: Baskaran, M. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry. Advances in Isotope Geochemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_34

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation