This study attempts to reconstruct food habits through carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope analysis and C/N analysis of charred residues inside pottery from the Primorye in the Russian Far East (Luzanova Sopka 2, Sergeyevka 1, Boisman 2, and Vetka 2 sites). Dates were obtained that were from the later stages of the Rudnaya culture (6980–6485 BP, 7800–7400 cal BP), proto-Boisman type (6760–6330 BP, 7600–7300 cal BP), Boisman culture (6155–4720 BP, 7100–5400 cal BP), and Vetka culture (6030–5870 BP, 6900–6700 cal BP). There are major differences in the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios between inland sites (δ13C –26.9 to –30.0‰, δ15N 7.6 to 9.3‰) and coastal sites (δ13C –18.1 to –24.2‰, δ15N 9.5 to 14.9‰). The results show that the diet of inland cultures consisted primarily of freshwater fish and terrestrial animals and plants, whereas that of coastal cultures consisted mainly of marine organisms.
One of the most intriguing questions of South American archaeology is the time, place, and origin of the earliest pottery. Since the late 1950s, the earliest pottery has been attributed to the materials of the Early Formative Valdivia culture (5600–3500 BP), coastal Ecuador. Excavations at the Real Alto site conducted in the 1970s and 1980s allowed the rejection of the spectacular “Jomon–Valdivia” hypothesis and established a local origin of the phenomenon. Recent radiocarbon dates from a joint Russian–Japanese–Ecuadorian project at Real Alto open a new page in our knowledge of the transition from pre-ceramic Las Vegas to ceramic Valdivia cultures.
Research on the evolution of dog foraging and diet has largely focused on scavenging during their initial domestication and genetic adaptations to starch-rich food environments following the advent of agriculture. The Siberian archaeological record evidences other critical shifts in dog foraging and diet that likely characterize Holocene dogs globally. By the Middle Holocene, body size reconstruction for Siberia dogs indicates that most were far smaller than Pleistocene wolves. This contributed to dogs’ tendencies to scavenge, feed on small prey, and reduce social foraging. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of Siberian dogs reveals that their diets were more diverse than those of Pleistocene wolves. This included habitual consumption of marine and freshwater foods by the Middle Holocene and reliance on C
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foods by the Late Holocene. Feeding on such foods and anthropogenic waste increased dogs’ exposure to microbes, affected their gut microbiomes, and shaped long-term dog population history.
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