Isotopic analyses suggest mammoth and plant in the diet of the oldest anatomically modern humans from far southeast Europe.

ABSTRACT: Relatively high ¹⁵N abundances in bone collagen of early anatomically modern humans in Europe have often been interpreted as a specific consumption of freshwater resources, even if mammoth is an alternative high ¹⁵N prey. At Buran-Kaya III, access to associated fauna in a secured archaeological context and application of recently developed isotopic analyses of individuals amino acids offer the opportunity to further examine this hypothesis. The site of Buran-Kaya III is located in south Crimea and has provided a rich archaeological sequence including two Upper Palaeolithic layers, from which human fossils were retrieved and directly dated as from 37.8 to 33.1 ka cal BP. Results from bulk collagen of three human remains suggests the consumption of a high ¹⁵N

SUBMITTER: Drucker DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5533724 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature