NONLINEARITY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BONE SR CA AND DIET - PALEODIETARY IMPLICATIONS/

Strontium in archaeological human bones is widely, almost paradigmatic ally, used as a measure of the relative dietary abundances of plants a nd meat. Quantitative modeling reveals, however, that there is not a s imple proportional relationship between bone strontium and the dietary plant/meat ratio. While knowledge of specific foods and their composi tions may permit accurate calculation of average bone strontium levels , knowledge of bone strontium does not inversely allow accurate calcul ation of specific foods. Although bone strontium quantitatively reflec ts the average dietary Sr/Ca ratio, it is disproportionately sensitive to high-calcium foods and can be easily affected by minor dietary con stituents and culinary practices. Bone strontium, and by analogy, bari um, should be seen as a reflection of the high-mineral dietary compone nts rather than a quantitative index of trophic position. (C) 1995 Wil ey-Liss, Inc.