Stable isotopic analysis on ancient human bones in Jiahu site

Palaeodietary analysis is one of important topics in bioarchaeology field and has been paid great attention to by Chinese archaeometrists recently. Ancient human bones in Jiahu Site were analyzed by means of stable isotopes of C, N and O. 13 human bones were excluded from 28 bones for dietary reconstruction due to their unusual collagen contents, C and N contents, and C/N atomic ratios especially. δ¹³ C (-20.37±0.53‰) in collagen of remaining samples showed that C₃ food were consumed mainly, which is consistent of the archaeological findings that rice was the staple in Jiahu. According to the difference of δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C values in bone collagen, the samples can be classified into four clusters. The changes of δ¹⁵N values in bone collagen and δ¹³C values in hydroxylapatite through whole cultural phases indicated the transition from hunting to gathering and fishing to rice agriculture and animal domestication ultimately. Meanwhile, the δ¹⁸O change in hydroxylapatite showed that palaeoclimate was relatively constant during Jiahu culture.