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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Published in | Journal of archaeological science Vol. 33; no. 11; pp. 1642 - 1646 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Amsterdam
Elsevier Ltd
01.11.2006
Elsevier Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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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. |
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ISSN: | 0305-4403 1095-9238 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.jas.2006.05.006 |