Cristiani, Emanuela, Radini, Anita orcid.org/0000-0002-2099-2639, Borić, Dušan et al. (8 more authors) (2018) Dental calculus and isotopes provide direct evidence of fish and plant consumption in Mesolithic Mediterranean. Scientific Reports. 8:8147. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
In this contribution we dismantle the perceived role of marine resources and plant foods in the subsistence economy of Holocene foragers of the Central Mediterranean using a combination of dental calculus and stable isotope analyses. The discovery of fish scales and flesh fragments, starch granules and other plant and animal micro-debris in the dental calculus of a Mesolithic forager dated to the end of the 8th millenium BC and buried in the Vlakno Cave on Dugi Otok Island in the Croatian Archipelago demonstrates that marine resources were regularly consumed by the individual together with a variety of plant foods. Since previous stable isotope data in the Eastern Adriatic and the Mediterranean region emphasises that terrestrial-based resources contributed mainly to Mesolithic diets in the Mediterranean Basin, our results provide an alternative view of the dietary habits of Mesolithic foragers in the Mediterranean region based on a combination of novel methodologies and data.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2018 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > Archaeology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 25 May 2018 14:00 |
Last Modified: | 27 Nov 2024 00:32 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26045-9 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41598-018-26045-9 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:131356 |