Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Stable Sulfur Isotope Ratios as an Additional Proxy for the Reconstruction of Weaning Patterns – A Case Study

Résumé

Over the past three or four years, sequential isotopic analysis of human dentine has become an increasingly common approach to reconstruct childhood lifehistory, and often specifically, weaning patterns in archaeological populations. The isotope systems involved are usually those of nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) and/or carbon (δ¹³C). Recent advancement in mass spectroscopy has allowed the simultaneous measurement of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios in small volume of processed dentine, thus opening up the possibility to incorporate stable sulfur isotope ratios (δ³⁴S) in sequential dentine analysis. However, one question remains: what can δ³⁴S in sequential dentine tell us about childhood lifehistory? In this study, a total of eleven first molars from two Middle Neolithic sites in the Paris Basin region, Balloy ‘Les Réaudins’ (BLR) and Vignely ‘la Porte aux Bergers’ (VPB) are sequentially analysed for stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios. Our results showed that δ³⁴S values in sequentially sampled dentine also show corresponding trends during the weaning period, suggesting it can be used as an additional proxy for understanding major shifts in diets during childhood. However, the result of this study reinforced the importance of establishing an archaeological local baseline, especially that of sulfur, in order to produce meaningful interpretations of the isotope data generated.

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Dates et versions

mnhn-05087672 , version 1 (28-05-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : mnhn-05087672 , version 1

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Christina Cheung, Estelle Herrscher, Rebecca Macdonald, Michael Richards, Aline Thomas. Stable Sulfur Isotope Ratios as an Additional Proxy for the Reconstruction of Weaning Patterns – A Case Study. 30th EAA Annual Meeting, Aug 2024, Rome, Italy. ⟨mnhn-05087672⟩
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