Past Populations Research Articles

Subsistence economy in the eastern Ordos Plateau, China during the late Warring States Period (c. 221 BCE) by stable isotope analysis

This case study presents stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic results of 40 human bones (δ13C value range: −9.7 ‰ ∼ −7.7 ‰, mean ± SD value: −8.6 ± 0.4 ‰; δ15N value range: 6.7 ‰ ∼ 10.0 ‰, mean ± SD value: 8.3 ± 0.7 ‰) from the Chuanzhang cemetery in the eastern Ordos Plateau, China during the late Warring States Period (c. 221 BCE), which indicate that the past populations mainly relied on C4-based food. Despite different archaeological cultures, all past populations in the Chuanzhang cemetery had a similar dietary pattern and subsistence economy. Based on archaeological and historical analysis, people in the Chuanzhang cemetery made their living mainly by millet-based agriculture, supplemented by animal husbandry. Comparing isotopic data published from adjacent and contemporary cemeteries, we can conclude that millet-based agriculture was a consistency and dominated subsistence economy in central-south, Inner Mongolia, which also provided a solid material foundation for the central plains government to control the eastern Ordos Plateau during the late Warring States Period.

How Does Social Inequality Alter Relationships Between Porous Cranial Lesions and Mortality? Examining the Relationship Between Skeletal Indicators of Stress, Socioeconomic Status, and Survivorship in a Pediatric Autopsy Sample.

In prior exploration of modern and archeological populations, lower SES has been associated with an increased risk of mortality. However, SES is often difficult to ascertain in archeological populations. Thus, explorations of skeletal lesions and their association with mortality may be subject to confounding factors that alter the strength and/or direction of this association. The present study uses data from a modern, documented coronial pediatric dataset to examine the association between porous cranial lesions (PCLs) (cribra orbitalia [CO] and porotic hyperostosis [PH]) and age at death while controlling for SES, as inferred through housing type, with manufactured or apartment housing identified as reflecting individuals from lower SES backgrounds in this context. We include 887 (535 males, 352 females) individuals aged 0.5-20.9 years from New Mexico who died between 2011 and 2022. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to assess survivorship as related to PCLs and SES. Low SES is associated with lower survivorship. CO does not have a significant association with age at death when not controlling for SES; PH alone is associated with older age at death. Disadvantaged individuals with PCLs have significantly reduced survivorship than those with higher SES. The findings of this study demonstrate that low SES results in reduced survivorship, and those with low SES and PCLs have worse survivorship than less disadvantaged individuals with PCLs. Thus, the strong contribution of SES to mortality necessitates the consideration of the sociocultural context as a confounding factor when examining associations between variables of interest (such as lesions) and mortality in both past and present populations.

The Population History of Domestic Sheep Revealed by Paleogenomes.

Sheep was one of the first domesticated animals in Neolithic West Eurasia. The zooarchaeological record suggests that domestication first took place in Southwest Asia, although much remains unresolved about the precise location(s) and timing(s) of earliest domestication, or the post-domestication history of sheep. Here, we present 24 new partial sheep paleogenomes, including a 13,000-year-old Epipaleolithic Central Anatolian wild sheep, as well as 14 domestic sheep from Neolithic Anatolia, two from Neolithic Iran, two from Neolithic Iberia, three from Neolithic France, and one each from Late Neolithic/Bronze Age Baltic and South Russia, in addition to five present-day Central Anatolian Mouflons and two present-day Cyprian Mouflons. We find that Neolithic European, as well as domestic sheep breeds, are genetically closer to the Anatolian Epipaleolithic sheep and the present-day Anatolian and Cyprian Mouflon than to the Iranian Mouflon. This supports a Central Anatolian source for domestication, presenting strong evidence for a domestication event in SW Asia outside the Fertile Crescent, although we cannot rule out multiple domestication events also within the Neolithic Fertile Crescent. We further find evidence for multiple admixture and replacement events, including one that parallels the Pontic Steppe-related ancestry expansion in Europe, as well as a post-Bronze Age event that appears to have further spread Asia-related alleles across global sheep breeds. Our findings mark the dynamism of past domestic sheep populations in their potential for dispersal and admixture, sometimes being paralleled by their shepherds and in other cases not.

Analysis of dental chipping for identifying and diagnosing tooth fracture patterns in osteological series

ObjectiveTo develop a specific methodology for identifying dental chipping and determining its temporal occurrence in past populations. DesignThe analysed sample comprised of 2191 human teeth from various Bronze Age on the Iberian Peninsula (Argar culture, 1900–1450 cal BC). Among these, 471 chipped teeth were identified. Chipping was examined using various microscopic techniques (digital three-dimensional, optical, and confocal), focusing on distribution, morphology, position in the tooth, extent of damage, and post-chipping antemortem modifications (PCAM). ResultsThe distribution and morphology of the chips enabled the identification chipping mechanism of the chipping, providing valid criteria to distinguish between antemortem and postmortem chipping. Microscopic analyses of the chipping segments—edges, sidewalls, surface, and surrounding area—facilitated determination of the time the chip ocurred (antemortem: recent, less recent, or not recent). ConclusionsWhile experimental studies provide valuable insights into chipping mechanisms, many criteria may not be applicable to past populations because of the presence of PCAM. The lack of PCAM in some Argaric teeth suggests that previous studies may have underestimated the prevalence of chipping in past populations.

Technological and Dietary Responses to Holocene Climate Events in the Northern Great Basin

ABSTRACT Environmental instability caused by extended periods of drought no doubt impacted past human populations by limiting economic options and driving changes in social and technological organization. Here we examine two sets of Great Basin sites with occupations spanning the middle and late Holocene droughts: one associated with lowland springs and another with upland springs. We use dietary markers retrieved via starch granule analysis to evaluate whether artifact form relates to resources processed, how changes in tool form might be related to past changes in climate, environment, and social organization, and what, if any, differences mark upland vs. lowland resource use. Our data suggest that changes in tool form track with environmental fluctuations and that in both upland and lowland settings diets focused primarily on tubers and high-return seeds and that these profitable and stable food sources likely anchored populations during periods of drought.

Retrodiction of forest demography: Backward simulation with reverse matrix models

Abstract Reconstructing past ecological population dynamics and demographic events is crucial for understanding the dynamics of ecological processes, evaluating the impact of environmental changes and making informed conservation decisions. In forest ecosystems, retrodiction (i.e. the backward projection of ecological populations) plays a pivotal role in understanding historical forest carbon levels and the factors that have influenced their variation over time, because forest demography is a major determinant of the amount of carbon stored in forest ecosystems. The persistent lack of quantitative methods has been a significant obstacle in retrodicting forest demography, especially in applications of a broad geographical scale. While there is a wealth of models for predicting future forest conditions, models that can project these conditions backward in time are scarce. This study presents reverse matrix model (RMM), an innovative retrodiction modelling approach grounded in the principles of transition matrix models. RMM is designed to deduce past demographic characteristics of ecological populations using current data, making it one of the first models capable of projecting the fine‐scale dynamics of forest demography into the past. We assessed the retrodictive performance of RMM by fitting it to a dataset of a disturbed tropical rainforest in French Guiana in 2001–2023, then comparing the retrodictions to observations back to 1983 when the disturbance occurred. We further empirically evaluated the viability of retrodiction over a defined duration by inverting the density‐dependent matrix model by Lin et al. (1996), which predicts the dynamics of northern hardwoods in the United States. The case studies demonstrate significant potential for RMM application in various domains of forestry and conservation, including ecosystem management and conservation planning, global change impact assessment and biodiversity monitoring.

Immune proteins recovered in tooth enamel as a biochemical record of health in past populations: Paleoproteomic analysis of Mission Period Native Californians

The enamel proteome includes a range of proteins that are well-preserved in archaeological settings but have so far received less study than those associated with sex-estimation of enamel. We look beyond sex-specific sequencing of amelogenin to investigate the potential of several serum proteins, including immunoglobulin gamma (IgG), the major immunoglobulin found in blood serum, and C-reactive protein (CRP), which is associated with inflammatory response, to provide insight into the health and stresses experienced by individuals in the past. We apply this approach to enamel samples from Mission-Period ancestral Ohlone interred at Asistencia San Pedro y San Pablo (CA-SMA-71/H; n = 11). For comparison, we also examine enamel from historic-period European-Americans interred in the City Cemetery in San Francisco (n = 12), and extracted third molars from present-day military cadets (n = 8). Results indicate that IgG is elevated among individuals at the asistencia relative to samples from present-day military cadets, and historic City Cemetery individuals (ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey Kramer tests, p < .02). Further, the inflammatory protein CRP, normally expressed at much lower levels than IgG, was present in 55% (6 of 11) of the asistencia samples, and in 17% (2 of 12) of the historic City Cemetery samples, but was not detected in enamel samples from present-day military cadets. While more studies are needed, we argue that the difference in IgG could reflect higher levels of chronic diseases such as tuberculosis among Ohlone living within the Mission system, and the presence of measurable amounts of CRP could relate to higher degrees of physical, social, and emotional stresses. To our knowledge, this is the first paleoproteomic study of immune proteins in tooth enamel. The ability to track immune responses during tooth formation could provide valuable and high-resolution information on ancient health and disease at the level of the individual over archaeological time-scales.

Improved inference of population histories by integrating genomic and epigenomic data.

With the availability of high-quality full genome polymorphism (SNPs) data, it becomes feasible to study the past demographic and selective history of populations in exquisite detail. However, such inferences still suffer from a lack of statistical resolution for recent, for example bottlenecks, events, and/or for populations with small nucleotide diversity. Additional heritable (epi)genetic markers, such as indels, transposable elements, microsatellites, or cytosine methylation, may provide further, yet untapped, information on the recent past population history. We extend the Sequential Markovian Coalescent (SMC) framework to jointly use SNPs and other hyper-mutable markers. We are able to (1) improve the accuracy of demographic inference in recent times, (2) uncover past demographic events hidden to SNP-based inference methods, and (3) infer the hyper-mutable marker mutation rates under a finite site model. As a proof of principle, we focus on demographic inference in Arabidopsis thaliana using DNA methylation diversity data from 10 European natural accessions. We demonstrate that segregating single methylated polymorphisms (SMPs) satisfy the modeling assumptions of the SMC framework, while differentially methylated regions (DMRs) are not suitable as their length exceeds that of the genomic distance between two recombination events. Combining SNPs and SMPs while accounting for site- and region-level epimutation processes, we provide new estimates of the glacial age bottleneck and post-glacial population expansion of the European A. thaliana population. Our SMC framework readily accounts for a wide range of heritable genomic markers, thus paving the way for next-generation inference of evolutionary history by combining information from several genetic and epigenetic markers.

Ramping cells in the rodent medial prefrontal cortex encode time to past and future events via real Laplace transform

In interval reproduction tasks, animals must remember the event starting the interval and anticipate the time of the planned response to terminate the interval. The interval reproduction task thus allows for studying both memory for the past and anticipation of the future. We analyzed previously published recordings from the rodent medial prefrontal cortex [J. Henke et al., eLife10, e71612 (2021)] during an interval reproduction task and identified two cell groups by modeling their temporal receptive fields using hierarchical Bayesian models. The firing in the "past cells" group peaked at the start of the interval and relaxed exponentially back to baseline. The firing in the "future cells" group increased exponentially and peaked right before the planned action at the end of the interval. Contrary to the previous assumption that timing information in the brain has one or two time scales for a given interval, we found strong evidence for a continuous distribution of the exponential rate constants for both past and future cell populations. The real Laplace transformation of time predicts exponential firing with a continuous distribution of rate constants across the population. Therefore, the firing pattern of the past cells can be identified with the Laplace transform of time since the past event while the firing pattern of the future cells can be identified with the Laplace transform of time until the planned future event.

Neolithic to Bronze Age human maternal genetic history in Yunnan, China

Yunnan in southwest China is a geographically and ethnically complex region at the intersection of southern China and Southeast Asia, and a focal point for human migrations. To clarify its maternal genetic history, we generated 152 complete mitogenomes from 17 Yunnan archaeological sites. Our results reveal distinct genetic histories segregated by geographical regions. Maternal lineages of ancient populations from northwestern and northern Yunnan exhibit closer affinities with past and present-day populations from northern East Asia and Tibet, providing important genetic evidence for the migration and interaction of populations along the Tibetan-Yi corridor since the Neolithic. Between 5500 and 1800 years ago, central Yunnan populations maintained their internal genetic relationships, including a 7000-year-old basal lineage of the rare and widely dispersed haplogroup M61. At the Xingyi site, changes in mitochondrial DNA haplogroup occurred between the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, with haplogroup shifting from those predominant in the Yellow River region to those predominant in coastal southern China. These results highlight the high diversity of Yunnan populations during the Neolithic to Bronze Age.

Intestinal parasites from Hubei archaeological sites of early China (5th century BCE to 3rd century CE)

Parasite remains in archaeological contexts provide a chance to look at the life of past populations from various perspectives, including dietary behaviors, subsistence activities, constructions of latrines, waste management, and interactions with the surrounding environment. Hubei Province is situated in Central China, boasting a rich history marked by extensive human activity. Previous studies have illuminated the presence of intestinal parasites in mummies of the Warring States Period (5th century BCE to 3rd century BCE) and Han Dynasty (3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE) sites, e.g., Chinese liver flukes (Clonorchis sinensis). This research centers on the analysis of twenty soil samples obtained from the pelvic region of human skeletal remains in seven archaeological sites within Hubei dating from the Warring States Period (5th century BCE to 3rd century BCE) to the Han Dynasty (3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE). The investigation has identified the presence of Chinese liver flukes (Clonorchis sinensis) at the site Gaotai. Several factors may contribute to the parasitic infection among the ancient Hubei population, including a suitable living environment for parasites, consumption of raw or undercooked fish, use of night soil, the rudimentary construction of latrines situated close to pigpens and bodies of water, as well as inadequate feces management. This research, with previous studies, indicates a possible endemic area for Chinese liver fluke in ancient Hubei. Future studies are expected to be conducted on the epidemiology of intestinal parasitic infection among ancient Hubei populations.

Range expansions across landscapes with quenched noise

When biological populations expand into new territory, the evolutionary outcomes can be strongly influenced by genetic drift, the random fluctuations in allele frequencies. Meanwhile, spatial variability in the environment can also significantly influence the competition between subpopulations vying for space. Little is known about the interplay of these intrinsic and extrinsic sources of noise in population dynamics: When does environmental heterogeneity dominate over genetic drift or vice versa, and what distinguishes their population genetics signatures? Here, in the context of neutral evolution, we examine the interplay between a population's intrinsic, demographic noise and an extrinsic, quenched random noise provided by a heterogeneous environment. Using a multispecies Eden model, we simulate a population expanding over a landscape with random variations in local growth rates and measure how this variability affects genealogical tree structure, and thus genetic diversity. We find that, for strong heterogeneity, the genetic makeup of the expansion front is to a great extent predetermined by the set of fastest paths through the environment. The landscape-dependent statistics of these optimal paths then supersede those of the population's intrinsic noise as the main determinant of evolutionary dynamics. Remarkably, the statistics for coalescence of genealogical lineages, derived from those deterministic paths, strongly resemble the statistics emerging from demographic noise alone in uniform landscapes. This cautions interpretations of coalescence statistics and raises new challenges for inferring past population dynamics.

The 'queen of the Andes' (Puya raimondii) is genetically fragile and fragmented: a consequence of long generation time and semelparity?

Understanding how life history shapes genetic diversity is a fundamental issue in evolutionary biology, with important consequences for conservation. However, we still have an incomplete picture of the impact of life history on genome-wide patterns of diversity, especially in long-lived semelparous plants. Puya raimondii is a high-altitude semelparous species from the Andes that flowers at 40-100 years of age. We sequenced the whole genome and estimated the nucleotide diversity of 200 individuals sampled from nine populations. Coalescent-based approaches were then used to infer past population dynamics. Finally, these results were compared with results obtained for the iteroparous species, Puya macrura. The nine populations of P. raimondii were highly divergent, highly inbred, and carried an exceptionally high genetic load. They are genetically depauperate, although, locally in the genome, balancing selection contributed to the maintenance of genetic polymorphism. While both P. raimondii and P. macrura went through a severe bottleneck during the Pleistocene, P. raimondii did not recover from it and continuously declined, while P. macrura managed to bounce back. Our results demonstrate the importance of life history, in particular generation time and reproductive strategy, in affecting population dynamics and genomic variation, and illustrate the genetic fragility of long-lived semelparous plants.

Revisiting the Spatial Cycle: Intra-Regional Development Patterns and Future Population Dynamics in Metropolitan Athens, Greece

Being intertwined with economic development, urbanization determines the present and future development path of regions and countries. The intimate relationship between urban expansion and economic development is of particular interest in the case of large regions with complex (and mostly non-linear) socio-demographic dynamics and a relevant primacy in the metropolitan system of a given country. Typical examples of advanced economies with settlement systems characterized by a high degree of city primacy are peripheral and disadvantaged European countries such as Portugal and Greece. For instance, the administrative region of Attica—centered on Athens, the Greek capital city—represents the largest metropolitan area of the country, hosting almost 3.8 million inhabitants in 2021 (36.2% of the Greek population). In this context, this study investigates the internal redistribution of the resident population in metropolitan Athens and the progressive development of satellite cities over a relatively longtime interval, testing the assumptions of the Spatial Cycle Theory (SCT) between 1951 and 2021 and predicting future development paths up to 2051. To investigate past, present, and future intra-regional population trends, we used data released from decadal (1951–2021) censuses and demographic forecasts for the years 2031, 2041, and 2051. Being in line with the SCT, the empirical results of our study document how demographic dynamics of individual centers influence largely—and independently—the long-term development of metropolitan regions, both with policy/planning regulation and in conditions of non-intervention (spontaneous urban growth).

Assessing the information-content of messy data to reconstruct population recovery dynamics for the world's rarest primate.

Understanding the dynamics of population recovery in threatened species requires robust longitudinal monitoring datasets. However, evidence-based decision-making is often impeded by variable data collection approaches, necessitating critical evaluation of restricted available baselines. The Hainan gibbon, the world's rarest primate, had possibly declined to only seven or eight individuals in 1978 at Bawangling National Nature Reserve but has experienced subsequent population growth. Past population estimates lack detailed reporting of survey effort, and multiple conflicting estimates are available, hindering assessment of gibbon recovery. We investigated all reported estimates of Bawangling gibbon population size from 1978 to 2022, to evaluate the biological signal of population trends and the extent to which noise associated with varying survey effort, reporting and estimation may mask or misrepresent any underlying signal. This longitudinal dataset demonstrates that the Bawangling population experienced a series of bottlenecks and recoveries, with three successive periods of growth interspersed by population crashes (1978-1989, 1989-2000 and 2000-2022). The rate of gibbon population recovery was progressively slower over time in each successive period of growth, and this potential decline in recovery rate following serial bottlenecks suggests that additional management strategies may be required alongside "nature-based solutions" for this species. However, population viability analysis suggests the 1978 founder population is unlikely to have been as low as seven individuals, raising concerns for interpreting reported historical population counts and understanding the dynamics of the species' recovery. We caution against overinterpreting potential signals within "messy" conservation datasets, and we emphasise the crucial importance of standardised replicable survey methods and transparent reporting of data and effort in all future surveys of Hainan gibbons and other highly threatened species.

Identification of Social Status through Grave Goods Using a Biocultural Approach in Interpreting the Alpine Context of Borca Di Cadore, Belluno, Veneto, Italy (18th–19th Centuries)

The cemetery of the Church of Santi Simone e Giuda in Borca di Cadore (Belluno province, Veneto region, Italy) was excavated between 2021 and 2023 as part of an archaeological intervention. The excavation area yielded a total of 21 graves dating back to the 18th–19th century; this was intriguing due to the presence of grave goods and taphonomic indicators that allowed these burials to be interpreted as clothed burials. This contribution examines 14 of the 21 graves, representing the available sample considering preservation conditions. Fieldwork was carried out through close synergy between archaeological and anthropological methodologies, involving careful excavation to verify funerary rituals through taphonomic data analysis. Anthropological methods were applied to determine the biological profile of the individuals, while aspects related to their health status were investigated through paleopathological analyses. Data obtained from field and laboratory observations were cross-referenced with historical and anthropological-cultural data from bibliographic and archival research. Reconstructing the social status of the deceased within the burial context is crucial for understanding the social and cultural dynamics of past populations, achievable only through a biocultural approach integrating information from archaeology, cultural anthropology, and bioarchaeology. Modern burial contexts offer privileged realities due to abundant historical and anthropological-cultural documentation, allowing for a more precise contextualization of bioarchaeological findings with significant support from documentary sources. Studies applied to these periods closer to the present enable the continuous refinement of an investigative method attentive to the synergy of different aspects of biocultural research, enhancing the importance of this approach in reconstructing the life histories of populations.

Ornithogenic sedimentary profiles of n-alkanes and PAHs constrain breeding penguin population dynamics at Cape Bird, Ross Island, Antarctica, over the past 1,500 years

Ornithogenic sediment may contain important paleoecological information concerning past bird population dynamics. In this paper, we analyse the distribution of n-alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in two sedimentary profiles collected from abandoned penguin colonies at Cape Bird, Ross Island, Antarctica. The geochronology of the sediment profiles was determined using 210Pb and AMS 14C dating techniques, and spans the past 1500 years. We observe low levels of n-alkanes (0.93–2.67 μg g−1) and PAHs (20.5–46.8 ng g−1) concentrations dominated by short-chain n-alkanes, low-molecular-weight and alkyl PAHs. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows that the PC 1 scores for n-alkanes and PAHs are significantly correlated with the input intensity of penguin guano and penguin bioelements. Using these proxies in combination with Generalized Additive Model (GAM), we reveal that breeding penguin population growth reaches a historical peak during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) prior to 1550 CE. This growth in population size corresponds to the extent of sea ice cover and the activity of the local atmospheric-ocean circulation. Warming induced by El Niño and the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode, along with the expansion of ice-free zones and increased oceanic nutrient and food availability, are considered primary factors contributing to the growth of breeding penguin populations. Additionally, variations in sea ice extent and Amundsen Sea Low significantly influence penguin population dynamics. Our study suggests that n-alkanes and PAHs may be valuable organic proxies for reconstructing historical changes in breeding penguin populations, with the local sea ice extent and atmospheric-oceanic circulation exerting a major influence on Antarctic penguin population dynamics.

Investigating food production-associated DNA methylation changes in paleogenomes: Lack of consistent signals beyond technical noise.

The Neolithic transition introduced major diet and lifestyle changes to human populations across continents. Beyond well-documented bioarcheological and genetic effects, whether these changes also had molecular-level epigenetic repercussions in past human populations has been an open question. In fact, methylation signatures can be inferred from UDG-treated ancient DNA through postmortem damage patterns, but with low signal-to-noise ratios; it is thus unclear whether published paleogenomes would provide the necessary resolution to discover systematic effects of lifestyle and diet shifts. To address this we compiled UDG-treated shotgun genomes of 13 pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) and 21 Neolithic farmers (NFs) individuals from West and North Eurasia, published by six different laboratories and with coverage c.1×-58× (median = 9×). We used epiPALEOMIX and a Monte Carlo normalization scheme to estimate methylation levels per genome. Our paleomethylome dataset showed expected genome-wide methylation patterns such as CpG island hypomethylation. However, analyzing the data using various approaches did not yield any systematic signals for subsistence type, genetic sex, or tissue effects. Comparing the HG-NF methylation differences in our dataset with methylation differences between hunter-gatherers versus farmers in modern-day Central Africa also did not yield consistent results. Meanwhile, paleomethylome profiles did cluster strongly by their laboratories of origin. Using larger data volumes, minimizing technical noise and/or using alternative protocols may be necessary for capturing subtle environment-related biological signals from paleomethylomes.

Archaeology meets environmental genomics: implementing sedaDNA in the study of the human past

Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) has become one of the standard applications in the field of paleogenomics in recent years. It has been used for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, detecting the presence of prehistoric species in the absence of macro remains and even investigating the evolutionary history of a few species. However, its application in archaeology has been limited and primarily focused on humans. This article argues that sedaDNA holds significant potential in addressing key archaeological questions concerning the origins, lifestyles, and environments of past human populations. Our aim is to facilitate the integration of sedaDNA into the standard workflows in archaeology as a transformative tool, thereby unleashing its full potential for studying the human past. Ultimately, we not only underscore the challenges inherent in the sedaDNA field but also provide a research agenda for essential enhancements needed for implementing sedaDNA into the archaeological workflow.

Agropastoral and dietary practices of the northern Levant facing Late Holocene climate and environmental change: Isotopic analysis of plants, animals and humans from Bronze to Iron Age Tell Tweini.

One of the largest isotopic datasets of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean region is evaluated, based on plants (n = 410), animals (n = 210) and humans (n = 16) from Tell Tweini (Syria). Diachronic analysis of plant and faunal specimens from four main periods of occupation: Early Bronze Age (2600-2000 BC), Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC), Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC) and Iron Age (1200-333 BC) were investigated. Mean Δ13C results from seven plant species reveal emmer and free threshing wheat, olives, bitter vetch, rye grass and barley were adequately or well-watered during all periods of occupation. The grape Δ13C results suggest excellent growing conditions and particular care for its cultivation. The δ15N results indicate that especially the emmer and free threshing wheats received some manure inputs throughout the occupation sequence, while these were likely further increased during the Iron Age, encompassing also the olive groves and grape vineyards. Generally, domestic animals (cattle, sheep, goats) had C3 terrestrial diets and were kept together in similar environments. However, some animals consumed significant amounts of marine or C4 plants, possibly from disturbed habitats due to land use pressure or salt tolerant grasses and shrubs from wetland environments, which were recorded in the direct vicinity of the site. Middle Bronze Age humans consumed a C3 terrestrial diet with no measurable input from C4, freshwater or marine protein sources. Interestingly, the human diet was relatively low in animal protein and appears comparable to what is considered today a typical Mediterranean diet consisting of bread (wheat/barley), olives, grapes, pulses, dairy products and small amounts of meat. The combined isotopic analysis of plants, animals and humans from Tell Tweini represents unbroken links in the food chain which create unparalleled opportunities to enhance our current understanding of environmental conditions, climate change and lifeways in past populations from the Eastern Mediterranean.