Stable isotope evidence for palaeodiets in southern Turkmenistan during Historical period and Iron Age

The subsistence patterns of Iron Age and Historical period humans from south-western turkmenistan have been reconstructed using the carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of archaeological faunal and human bones. A qualitative comparison of the isotopic signatures points to a small proportion of ruminant meat and dairy in human diet for both periods. The ranges of proportions of dietary items yielded by a quantitative approach based on concentration dependent mixing models confirm the high proportions of plant food in the average diet, and show little change in the reconstructed diet for both periods. A comparison results from zooarchaeological and isotopic approaches illustrates their complementarity in Subsistence patterns reconstruction. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.