Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age Crop Water Management in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southwest Asia
نویسندگان
چکیده
In a large study on early crop water management, stable carbon isotope discrimination was determined for 275 charred grain samples from nine archaeological sites, dating primarily to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, from the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia. This has revealed that wheat (Triticum spp.) was regularly grown in wetter conditions than barley (Hordeum sp.), indicating systematic preferential treatment of wheat that may reflect a cultural preference for wheat over barley. Isotopic analysis of pulse crops (Lens culinaris, Pisum sativum and Vicia ervilia) indicates cultivation in highly varied water conditions at some sites, possibly as a result of opportunistic watering practices. The results have also provided evidence for local land-use and changing agricultural practices.
منابع مشابه
New Evidence from Neolithic to Achaemenid Periods in North-Western Iran: Excavations at Kul Tepe (Hadishahr), Second Preliminary Report (2013)
The site of Kul Tepe is located near the city of Hadishahr, in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. It is an ancient multi-period mound, having an extension of about 6 hectares and rising 19 meters above the surrounding land. The second season of archeological excavations at the site, carried out in 2013, aimed at clarifying its chronology and its settlement organization. In the meantime it aimed at el...
متن کاملHuman paleodiet and animal utilization strategies during the Bronze Age in northwest Yunnan Province, southwest China
Reconstructing ancient diets and the use of animals and plants augment our understanding of how humans adapted to different environments. Yunnan Province in southwest China is ecologically and environmentally diverse. During the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, this region was occupied by a variety of local culture groups with diverse subsistence systems and material culture. In this paper, we...
متن کاملThe relationships between carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis and rice yield under shading
The measurement of carbon isotope discrimination (∆) provides an integrated insight into theresponse of plants to environmental change. To investigate the potential use of ∆ for identifyingshade tolerance in rice, five rice varieties were selected and artificially shaded (53% lightreduction) during the grain-filling period in 2010 and 2011, in Sichuan, China. Shadingtreatment had a significant ...
متن کاملPrehistoric dietary adaptations among hunter-fisher-gatherers from the Little Sea of Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russian Federation
Dietary adaptations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers from Neolithic and Early Bronze Age cemeteries in the Little Sea region of Cis-Baikal (the region to the west and north of Lake Baikal) are explored using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. Stable isotope data, including stable carbon isotopes from bone carbonate, are presented for 22 individuals from the site of Kurma XI, dated to approx...
متن کاملAncient Diet Reconstruction: A Case Study of Sidon, Lebanon
The present work is associated with dietary reconstruction using δ13C and δ15N analysis of humans from the site of Sidon, a Middle Bronze Age (2000BC-1550BC) settlement in Lebanon. The main objective of this research is to focus on collagen extraction of 23 individual bones, discovered in a cemetery, College site (season 2001-2002) in ancient Sidon. Collagen could only be extracted from the 8 a...
متن کامل