Stable Carbon and Nitrogen isotope evidence for prehistoric hunter‐gatherer diet in the lower Murray River basin, South Australia

Abstract

AbstractStable isotope data are making significant contributions to reconstructions of past lifeways by providing information about dietary variability, habitat use, and palaeoecology. Late Holocene hunter‐gatherers from the lower Murray River Basin of South Australia have bone collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values similar to those for prehistoric lakeshore inhabitants of southern Ontario, Canada. While δ13C values indicate a C3‐based terrestrial diet for this Aboriginal riverine population, the addition of δ15N data provides more precise dietary discrimination suggesting a focus on local terrestrial mammals such as kangaroos, wombats, and dingoes supplemented by freshwater fish, mussels, and crustaceans. Faunal remains from lower Murray rockshelters also indicate diets based on terrestrial mammals and freshwater fish and shellfish during the Late Holocene. Elevated bone collagen δ15N values in the Roonka Flat human population are related to the consumption of local δ15N‐enriched foods such as dingoes, terrestrial herbivores, and freshwater fish. With regard to sedentism and territoriality, the stable isotope data indicate limited movement of food and people between the riverine environment and adjacent arid interior and coastal habitats.