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dc.contributor.authorBeaumont, Julia*
dc.contributor.authorMontgomery, Janet*
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-21T15:53:48Z
dc.date.available2016-11-21T15:53:48Z
dc.date.issued2014-06
dc.identifier.citationBeaumont J and Montgomery J (2014) A closer examination of childhood diet and physiology using stable isotope analysis of incremental human dentine. Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology. 8(1): 49.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10454/10425
dc.descriptionYes
dc.description.abstractAbstract: The reconstruction of the diet of past populations using the stable isotope analysis of bone collagen has become a well-established tool for examining their lifeways. For example, variations in foods ingested can demonstrate differences in the foods available to individuals of different sex, age, status and in some cases identifying migrants. However, because of the remodelling of bone throughout life, this produces average values which have been incorporated in the tissues over a period of time and gives a blurred picture of the diet. The analysis of the stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) from tiny increments of dentine utilizes tissue that does not remodel and that permits comparison, at the same age, of those who survived infancy with those who did not at high temporal resolution. Here, we present a study of teeth from a Great Famine period workhouse cemetery in Kilkenny, Ireland, and a contemporary 19th-century cemetery in London, England and compare these with published data from early Neolithic individuals from Sumburgh, Shetland, Scotland. Covariation in δ13C and δ15N values suggests that even small variations have a physiological basis. We show that high-resolution intra-dentine isotope profiles can pinpoint shortduration events such as dietary change, and in the historical populations these can be related to known periods of nutritional deprivation in the juvenile years of life. We further suggest that the data from the Famine cemetery individuals suggest a physiological marker within these isotope profiles for a period of nutritional deprivation which could be utilised in other periods and geographical areas, particularly where there is a catastrophic cemetery assemblage with no known aetiology. This technique could also have applications in a forensic setting.
dc.relation.isreferencedbyhttp://hrcak.srce.hr/file/184502
dc.rights(c) 2014 The Authors. This is an Open Access abstract distributed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license.
dc.subjectPalaeodiet; Carbon; Nitrogen; Incremental dentine; Famine
dc.titleA closer examination of childhood diet and physiology using stable isotope analysis of incremental human dentine
dc.status.refereedNo
dc.typeAbstract
dc.type.versionPublished version


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