The Proof is in the Pudding: Crop Isotope Analysis Provides Direct Insights into Agricultural Production and Consumption

Amy K. Styring, Corina Knipper, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Gisela Grupe and Amy Bogaard

Environmental Archaeology, 2022, vol. 27, issue 1, 61-72

Abstract: Stable isotope analysis of crop remains complements conventional isotope analysis of human and faunal bones, permitting a more holistic insight into subsistence practices in the past. Here, we demonstrate the insights that can be gained from crop isotope analysis by synthesising crop, faunal and human isotopic data from Linearbandkeramik villages, Late Neolithic lakeshore settlements and Early Iron Age sites in southwest Germany. As well as demonstrating the central role that plants played in the human diet, extensive stable isotope analysis of crop remains provides evidence for a strong interrelationship between crop production and consumption practices, which often belies a purely ecological motivation behind the differential treatment of crops.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14614103.2018.1497832 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:yenvxx:v:27:y:2022:i:1:p:61-72

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/yenv20

DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2018.1497832

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental Archaeology is currently edited by Tim Mighall

More articles in Environmental Archaeology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().