Assessing the Early Holocene Environment of Northwestern Guyana: An Isotopic Analysis of Human and Faunal Remains

Abstract

This study uses stable carbon δ13C and oxygen δ18O isotope compositions data to assess the extent to which diet breadths of northwestern Guyana changed during the Holocene. We analyzed human bone and enamel remains from seven shell mound sites dating between 7500 and 2600 BP. Our analyses demonstrate some constancy in C3 plant availability during the past several thousand years, though we note increasing reliance on such plants beginning in the Early Holocene. We also document warming intervals during the Early Holocene (Early Archaic) that appear to correlate with dry periods known elsewhere in the central Amazon during this period.

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

“…at the Eva site in French Guiana between~6 and 3.9ka. In coastal Guyana, the analysis byDaggers et al (2018) of bone isotopes from 81 individuals from shell mounds dating tõ 7.5e2.6ka show values indicative of C3 plants resource use in an open canopy environment.…”