Alteration of and ratios of plant matter during the initial stages of diagenesis: Studies utilizing archaeological specimens from Peru

Stable carbon isotope changes during artificial charring of propagules

“…However, although charcoal has been widely studied, to date little consideration has been paid to the extent to which charred or charcoalified organic material has been changed in relation to both its stable carbon isotope-and molecular composition. One study that has tried to address the problem of using carbon isotopes from archaeological charcoalified plant material is that of DeNiro and Hastorf (1985) who focused on a selection of both modern and archaeological plant remains. They found that modern plant parts expressed an isotopic variation up to 2% whereas uncarbonized prehistoric plants had carbon isotopic values that differ by as much as 8%.…”

“…Archaeological plants carbonized prior to deposition are similar (differences up to 3%) to the isotopic values of their modern counterparts. In the case of pods of Pisum sativum L. (pea), DeNiro and Hastorf (1985) note that the carbonized organic matter also became more 13 C depleted when compared with material that had not been carbonized. Therefore there is a fundamental need to understand both the distribution of isotopes within parts of the same plant and the changes that occur when plant matter undergoes fossilization (DeNiro and Hastorf, 1985), including charcoalification.…”

“…In the case of pods of Pisum sativum L. (pea), DeNiro and Hastorf (1985) note that the carbonized organic matter also became more 13 C depleted when compared with material that had not been carbonized. Therefore there is a fundamental need to understand both the distribution of isotopes within parts of the same plant and the changes that occur when plant matter undergoes fossilization (DeNiro and Hastorf, 1985), including charcoalification. It is essential that an assessment is made of the inherent changes in d 13 C that take place during the process of charcoalification in combination with molecular alterations such that the d 13 C values of fossil material can be interpreted with more accuracy.…”

Integrating botanical, faunal and human stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values to reconstruct land use and palaeodiet at LBK Vaihingen an der Enz, Baden-Württemberg

“…A major weakness of past palaeodiet modelling approaches is that the stable isotope values of plants are not measured directly. This is due variously to poor preservation of plant remains, lack of retrieval strategies and/or justified concerns over the preservation of original organic molecules in ancient plant remains (DeNiro and Hastorf 1985;Fraser et al in press;Fogel and Tuross 1999;Marino and Deniro 1987 (Amundson et al 2003;Heaton 1987); therefore, understanding the potential for intra-site plant-diet δ 15 N variability is crucial for the reliable reconstruction of animal and human trophic levels within landscapes (Katzenberg 2000;van Klinken et al 2000). Of particular relevance to investigating past land use in early farming groups is the practice of manuring, which may have been widespread among Neolithic farmers in Europe (Bogaard 2012a), because it can substantially increase crop δ 15 N values relative to surrounding unmanured non-crop plants within the same ecological zone Fraser et al 2011;Kanstrup et al 2012).…”

Eating out or dining in: modeling diverse dietary strategies in the Middle Period, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

“…Food web isotope values comprised the edible portions of 119 southern Andean plant and animal samples drawn from previous work in the region (DeNiro and Hastorf 1985;Miller et al 2010;Pestle et al 2015b;Schoeninger and DeNiro 1984;Tieszen and Chapman 1992). Any modern data included in this reference sample had δ 13 C values corrected by +1.5 ‰ to account for the fossil fuel burning effect (Keeling et al 1979).…”