Focus: sulphur isotope variation in archaeological marine fauna from northern Europe

We undertook combined stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of marine and terrestrial faunal remains from two prehistoric coastal shell middens in Denmark. The aim of the investigation was to establish whether sulphur isotopes were useful in discriminating terrestrial and marine consu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of archaeological science Vol. 33; no. 11; pp. 1642 - 1646
Main Authors Craig, O.E., Ross, R., Andersen, Søren H., Milner, N., Bailey, G.N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2006
Elsevier Science
Subjects
Collagen
Environmental studies
Fauna
Marine
Mesolithic
Methodology and general studies
Neolithic
Prehistory and protohistory
Stable isotopes
Sulphur
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Denmark
Europe
Northern Europe
Marine
Mesolithic
Sulphur
Stable isotopes
Collagen
Neolithic
Study
Shell midden
Isotope
Fauna
Carbon
Exploitation
Variation
Isotope Analysis
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Summary:We undertook combined stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope analysis of marine and terrestrial faunal remains from two prehistoric coastal shell middens in Denmark. The aim of the investigation was to establish whether sulphur isotopes were useful in discriminating terrestrial and marine consumers in this region. We found that sulphur isotopes do separate marine and terrestrial fauna but, contrary to our expectations, we observed a negative correlation between δ 34S and δ 13C values for marine fauna. We conclude that similar studies over a broader geographical range are needed before sulphur isotopes can be reliably used to study coastal resource exploitation.
ISSN:0305-4403
1095-9238
DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2006.05.006