FOCUS: Gough's Cave and Sun Hole Cave human stable isotope values indicate a high animal protei

2025-01-06 Classification：history Click()
Author：Richards, MP; Hedges, REM; Jacobi, R; Current, A; Stringer, C

Article Title：FOCUS: Gough's Cave and Sun Hole Cave human stable isotope values indicate a high animal protein diet in the British Upper Palaeolithic

Abstract：
We undertook stable isotope analysis of Upper Palaeolithic humans and fauna from the sites of Gough's Cave and Sun Hole Cace, Somerset, U.K., for palaeodietary reconstruction. We were testing the hypothesis that these humans had a mainly hunting economy, and therefore a diet high in animal protein. We found this to be the case, and by comparing the human N-15 values with those of contemporary fauna, we conclude that the protein sources in human diets at these sites came mainly from herbivores such as Bos sp. and Cervus elaphus. There are a large number of Equus sp. faunal remains from this site, but this species was not a significant food resource in the diets of these Upper Palaeolithic humans.

Keywords: palaeodiet; Upper Palaeolithic; stable isotopes; carbon; nitogen; Gough's Cave

DOI: 10.1006/jasc.1999.0520

Source：JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE

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