“Mind the gap”—Assessing methods for aligning age determination and growth rate in multi‐molar sequences of dietary isotopic data

Scharlotta, Ian; Goude, Gwénaëlle; Herrscher, Estelle; Bazaliiskii, Vladimir I.; Weber, Andrzej

doi:10.1002/ajhb.23163

Cited by 19 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Ages were assigned to individual molar sections following Scharlotta, Goude, Herrscher, Bazaliiski, and Weber () using a method derived from Beaumont (Beaumont et al, ; Beaumont & Montgomery, ). Beaumont's method approximates age based on the number of sections cut from a tooth and the population averaged growth rate for that tooth.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, if approximately 1½ mm of dentin was missing through wear, then the initiation age for the tooth was moved up by 408 days (272 days/mm * 1½ mm), and the total development time reduced accordingly. The growth rate derived from this estimation was then modified by a proportional multiplier to approximate the differing dentin growth rates along the molar root (Scharlotta et al, ). Ages are presented as the midpoint of the starting and stopping ages of the section.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These records likely include a number of Asian populations but are not likely to solely reflect northern Asian or Siberian populations and may alter the precision of age‐estimates for incremental sections. Analysis of the efficacy of different age‐assessment and growth rate models (Scharlotta et al, ) showed superior results for aligning multimolar dietary sequences at Shamanka II using development ages from Haaviko (). The model was chosen to help refine the weaning age assessments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifting weaning practices in Early Neolithic Cis‐Baikal, Siberia: New insights from stable isotope analysis of molar micro‐samples

Scharlotta

Goude

Herrscher

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Reconstructing individual dietary histories at Shamanka II, an Early Neolithic (7000–5700 cal. BP) Kitoi hunter‐gatherer cemetery in Cis‐Baikal, Siberia, revealed surprising intrapopulation variability in childhood diets. Stable isotope analytical data produced by micro‐sampled first molars identified changes in both the timing and rate of weaning for different individuals. Further, examination within the framework of a high‐resolution radiocarbon chronology identified shifting practices between two phases of cemetery use, and additional links with mortuary treatment that indicates differences relating to group and/or family structure. The differential treatment of infants, correlated with the complex hunter‐gatherer social structure, and subsequent burial treatment evident at this cemetery are investigated in light of regional dietary trends.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Shifting weaning practices in Early Neolithic Cis‐Baikal, Siberia: New insights from stable isotope analysis of molar micro‐samples

Scharlotta

Goude

Herrscher

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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“…Many of the difficulties associated with the interpretation of bone isotopes can be overcome by the use of serial sections of dentin from both children and adults, as primary dentin maintains the dietary inputs of infancy in the form of isotopic trends [14,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Most archaeological studies of breastfeeding and weaning practices have been entirely focused on the use of nitrogen and carbon isotopes; less frequently, oxygen isotopes, strontium and calcium concentrations, and calcium isotope ratios have been used (see [14] for a review).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing up in Ancient Sardinia: Infant-toddler dietary changes revealed by the novel use of hydrogen isotopes (δ2H)

Ryan

Reynard

Pompianu³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Detailed information about the lives and deaths of children in antiquity is often in short supply. Childhood dietary histories are, however, recorded and maintained in the teeth of both juveniles and adults. Primary tooth dentinal collagen does not turn over, preserving a sequential record of dietary changes. The use of nitrogen (δ 15 N) and carbon (δ 13 C) isotope values of incrementally sampled dentin are used in the study of breastfeeding practices but evidence for the addition of weaning foods, both in terms of mode and, particularly, duration, has remained analytically inaccessible to date. Here, we demonstrate how the novel use hydrogen isotope (δ 2 H) values of sequentially micro-sampled dentin collagen, measured from individuals excavated from a Punic cemetery, in Sardinia, Italy, can serve as a proxy for weaning food type and duration in ancient childhood diet. The weaning rate and age, based on the decline in δ 15 N and δ 13 C values of permanent first molars and the concomitant increase in δ 2 H, appears to be broadly similar among six individuals. Hydrogen isotopes vary systematically from a low value soon after birth, rising through early childhood. The early post-birth values can be explained by the influence of 2 H-depleted lipids from mother's breastmilk and the later δ 2 H rise is consistent with, among other things, a substantial portion of boiled foodstuffs, such as the higher δ 2 H values observed in porridge. Overall δ 2 H in dentin shows great promise to elucidate infant and childhood feeding practices, and especially the introduction of supplementary foods during the weaning process.

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“…Newer methods in stable isotope analysis using incremental sections of dentine for longitudinal studies of dietary changes within individuals reduces or negates some of the limitations a cross‐sectional study such as this will encounter. Incremental studies do not negate the influence of nondietary factors on δ 13 C and δ 15 N values in human tissues, but do allow a finer‐grained approach to identifying these factors as tooth formation is much more immune to environmental factors and more tightly controlled by genetics than bone development (J. Beaumont et al, ; Cardoso, ; King et al, ; Scharlotta, Goude, Herrscher, Bazaliiskii, & Weber, ). In addition, while collagen turnover rates are relatively fast in infants and young children (Szulc et al, ), the bone collagen turnover of adults is slower, leading to bone stable isotope values reflecting an averaged value over roughly the last 10 years of life with individual variation from factors such as malnutrition and disease (Geyh, ; Hedges et al, ; Szulc et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices in the Bronze Age Near East using stable nitrogen isotopes

Stantis

Schutkowski

Sołtysiak

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Breastfeeding and childhood diet have significant impact on morbidity and mortality within a population, and in the ancient Near East, it is possible to compare bioarchaeological reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices with the scant textual evidence. Materials and Methods: Nitrogen stable isotopes (δ 15 N) are analyzed here for dietary reconstruction in skeletal collections from five Bronze Age (ca. 2,800-1,200-BCE) sites in modern Lebanon and Syria. We employed Bayesian computational modeling on cross-sectional stable isotope data of collagen samples (n = 176) mainly from previous studies to test whether the bioarchaeological evidence aligns with the textual evidence of breastfeeding and weaning practices in the region, as well as compare the estimated weaning times to the global findings using the WARN (weaning age reconstruction with nitrogen isotope analysis) Bayesian model.Results: Though the Near East sites in this study had different ecological settings and economic strategies, we found that weaning was introduced to the five sites at 0.5 ± 0.2 years of age and complete weaning occurred around 2.6 ± 0.3 years of age on using the WARN computational model. These weaning processes are within the time suggested by historical texts, though average estimated weaning age on the Mediterranean coast is later than inland sites.Discussion: Compared globally, these Near Eastern populations initiated the weaning process earlier but completed weaning within the global average.Early initial weaning may have created short spacing between pregnancies and a high impact on demographic growth within these agricultural populations, with some variation in subsistence practices accounting for the inland/coastal discrepancies.

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“Mind the gap”—Assessing methods for aligning age determination and growth rate in multi‐molar sequences of dietary isotopic data

Abstract: Age-assessment methods customized to dentin initiation ages and growth parameters of Siberian populations produced a hybrid growth rate model for dentin section ages and improved alignment for multi-tooth SI sequences over published models.

Cited by 19 publications

References 33 publications

Shifting weaning practices in Early Neolithic Cis‐Baikal, Siberia: New insights from stable isotope analysis of molar micro‐samples

Shifting weaning practices in Early Neolithic Cis‐Baikal, Siberia: New insights from stable isotope analysis of molar micro‐samples

Growing up in Ancient Sardinia: Infant-toddler dietary changes revealed by the novel use of hydrogen isotopes (δ2H)

Reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices in the Bronze Age Near East using stable nitrogen isotopes

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