The “post‑weanling’s conundrum”: exploring the impact of infant and child feeding practices on early mortality in the Bronze Age burial cave of Moro de Alins, north‑eastern Iberia, through stable isotope analysis
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2022
The relationship between infant and child feeding practices and early mortality is difficult to a... more The relationship between infant and child feeding practices and early mortality is difficult to address in past societies. Here,
stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope measurements of bulk bone and sequential dentine samples of deciduous
second and/or permanent first molars of four younger children, one older child, one late adolescent, and two young adults
(n = 8) from Moro de Alins cave, north-eastern Iberia, are used to explore the potential impact of early-life nutrition on mortality
in the Bronze Age. Isotope results are compatible with generally short exclusive breastfeeding and standard weaning
periods compared to other pre-modern populations. However, there are differences in exclusive breastfeeding mean δ13C
values and in Δ13C trophic shifts between exclusive breastfeeding and immediate post-weaning isotope values for those
individuals who survived into adolescence and adulthood and those who did not. While the former seem to be consistent
with trophic distances published for modern mother–infant pairs, the latter are above most of them. This may suggest that
individuals who consumed similar foods to their mothers or suffered from less physiological stress during or after weaning
had greater chances of survival during early childhood and beyond. Post-weaning seems to have been a particularly stressful
period of life, where a number of instances of patterns of opposing isotopic covariance compatible with catabolic changes,
often preceding death among non-survivors, are detected. This outcome shows the key role of nutritional and/or physiological
status in early-life morbidity and mortality among partially and especially fully weaned children from pre-antibiotic,
pre-vaccination, and poor sanitation contexts and proposes that adult survival is rooted in early life experiences, in keeping
with the developmental origins of health and disease.
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Papers by Rick Schulting
millennium BC have made the origins and nature of the
Yamnaya culture a question of broad relevance across
northern Eurasia. But none of the key archaeological
sites most important for understanding the evolution of
Yamnaya culture is published in western languages. These
key sites include the fifth-millennium BC Khvalynsk cemetery
in the middle Volga steppes. When the first part of
the Eneolithic cemetery (Khvalynsk I) was discovered in
1977–1979, the graves displayed many material and ritual
traits that were quickly recognized as similar and probably
ancestral to Yamnaya customs, but without the Yamnaya
kurgans. With the discovery of a second burial plot
(Khvalynsk II) 120 m to the south in 1987–1988, Khvalynsk
became the largest excavated Eneolithic cemetery in the
Don-Volga-Ural steppes (201 recorded graves), dated about
4500–4300 BCE. It has the largest copper assemblage of
the fifth millennium BC in the steppes (373 objects) and the
largest assemblage of sacrificed domesticated animals (at
least 106 sheep-goat, 29 cattle, and 16 horses); and it produced
four polished stone maces from well-documented
grave contexts. The human skeletons have been sampled
extensively for ancient DNA, the basis for an analysis of
family relationships. This report compiles information
from the relevant Russian-language publications and from
the archaeologists who excavated the site, two of whom are
co-authors, about the history of excavations, radiocarbon
dates, copper finds, domesticated animal sacrifices, polished
stone maces, genetic and skeletal studies, and relationships
with other steppe cultures as well as agricultural
cultures of the North Caucasus (Svobodnoe-Meshoko) and
southeastern Europe (Varna and Cucuteni-Tripol’ye B1).
Khvalynsk is described as a coalescent culture, integrating
and combining northern and southern elements, a hybrid
that can be recognized genetically, in cranio-facial types,
in exchanged artifacts, and in social segments within the
cemetery. Stone maces symbolized the unification and
integration of socially defined segments at Khvalynsk.
Das äneolithische Gräberfeld von Khvalynsk an der Wolga. Mittels genetischer Untersuchungen bestätigte Wanderungen des dritten Jahrtausends v. Chr. zeigen, wie relevant Forschungen zu den Ursprüngen und dem Wesen der Yamnaya-Kultur im nordeurasischen Raum tatsächlich sind. Bislang wurde keine der wichtigsten archäologischen Stätten, die für das Verständnis der Entwicklung der Yamnaya-Kultur von Bedeutung sind, in westlichen Sprachen veröffentlicht. Zu diesen Fundplätzen gehört etwa das in der mittleren Wolga-Steppe gelegene und in das 5. Jahrtausend v. Chr. datierende Gräberfeld von Khvalynsk. Als 1977-1979 der erste Teil des äneolithischen Friedhofs (Khvalynsk I) entdeckt wurde, zeigten die Gräber viele materielle und rituelle Merkmale, die rasch den Yamnaya-Bräuchen zugerechnet wurden, wobei jedoch die ansonsten für die Yamnaya-Kultur typischen Kurgane fehlten. Mit der Entdeckung eines 120 m südlich gelegenen zweiten Gräberfeldes (Khvalynsk II) in den Jahren 1987-1988 wurde Khvalynsk zum größten ergegrabenen äneolithischen Friedhof in der Don-Wolga-Ural-Steppe
stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope measurements of bulk bone and sequential dentine samples of deciduous
second and/or permanent first molars of four younger children, one older child, one late adolescent, and two young adults
(n = 8) from Moro de Alins cave, north-eastern Iberia, are used to explore the potential impact of early-life nutrition on mortality
in the Bronze Age. Isotope results are compatible with generally short exclusive breastfeeding and standard weaning
periods compared to other pre-modern populations. However, there are differences in exclusive breastfeeding mean δ13C
values and in Δ13C trophic shifts between exclusive breastfeeding and immediate post-weaning isotope values for those
individuals who survived into adolescence and adulthood and those who did not. While the former seem to be consistent
with trophic distances published for modern mother–infant pairs, the latter are above most of them. This may suggest that
individuals who consumed similar foods to their mothers or suffered from less physiological stress during or after weaning
had greater chances of survival during early childhood and beyond. Post-weaning seems to have been a particularly stressful
period of life, where a number of instances of patterns of opposing isotopic covariance compatible with catabolic changes,
often preceding death among non-survivors, are detected. This outcome shows the key role of nutritional and/or physiological
status in early-life morbidity and mortality among partially and especially fully weaned children from pre-antibiotic,
pre-vaccination, and poor sanitation contexts and proposes that adult survival is rooted in early life experiences, in keeping
with the developmental origins of health and disease.
to assess the potential of such information. Here, we undertake stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 125 human and seven animal bone collagen samples from six late prehistoric megalithic graves (La
Cascaja, El Sotillo, San Martín, Alto de la Huesera, Chabola de la Hechicera and Longar) which, together with 107 previously published Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (ca. 3600-2900 BC) bone collagen samples (100
humans and six animals) from the same tombs, are used to explore subsistence trends over time. This approach provides a means to address the socio-economic response of northern Iberian megalithic communities to the cultural and climatic changes occurring in late prehistory. Isotopic data are contextualized using palaeoenvironmental and osteoarchaeological information. The results show a significant shift in diet between the late
Middle Neolithic and the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic that coincides with marked changes in burial practices that are likely related to the transition from mainly pastoral to mixed farming economies. There may also be
a change in subsistence between the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic and the following periods, suggested by differences in δ15N values between the layers of the Alto de la Huesera megalithic grave, as well as in population
and funerary dynamics. By contrast, an apparent continuity in subsistence is seen, at least isotopically, from the Middle Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age, despite clear changes in beliefs and socio-economic practices. These
findings support the existence of substantial asynchronous changes in lifeways and ideology among Iberian megalithic groups and challenge the traditional idea of a long and uniform stability in late prehistoric northern
Iberia.
Materials: A single well-preserved but incomplete human skeleton.
Methods: Macroscopic observation and low power magnification, CT imaging, radiocarbon dating and stable isotope (carbon, nitrogen) analysis.
Results: The stingray spine is tentatively identified as Bathytoshia brevicaudata. CT imaging shows no healing, indicating that death occurred shortly afterwards. The skeleton has been directly radiocarbon dated to the Okhotsk period (cal AD 429–827), with δ13C (-13.7‰) and δ15N (19.3‰) values indicating a diet focused on marine foods.
Conclusions: The absence of healing in what would have been a non-lethal injury strongly suggests that the spine tipped an arrowhead, rather than being the result of an accidental encounter with a living stingray. It is possible that the injury reflects a period of increased conflict coinciding with, or following on from, the expansion of the Okhotsk culture from Sakhalin into northern Hokkaido.
Significance: Uedomari-5 provides the first example, to our knowledge, of a stingray spine directly embedded in human bone at an archaeological site. More widely, the finding contributes to our knowledge of conflict in northern hunter-gatherer communities.
areas requiring further research are highlighted, and the use of other proxies (δ2H, δ34S) for assessing the dietary contributions of freshwater resources is considered. A case study from the Early Neolithic cemetery of Shamanka II is used to illustrate the marked effects of changes in dietary catchment over an individual’s life history, with bone and tooth dates from the same individual differing by 385 14C yr.