Ea. Little et Mj. Schoeninger, THE LATE WOODLAND DIET ON NANTUCKET ISLAND AND THE PROBLEM OF MAIZE IN COASTAL NEW-ENGLAND, American antiquity, 60(2), 1995, pp. 351-368
Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of (1) bone collagen from six buria
ls of the Late Woodland Period at Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, and
(2) a wide range of potential dietary materials provide data for eval
uating coastal diets. Archaeological and historical data give evidence
for the availability and use of dietary items. The bases of the food
chains and trophic levels define the possible food groups: terrestrial
C-3 and C-4 plants and their consumers, marine C-3 or C-4-like plants
and their consumers, and marine carnivores. From these data, computer
analysis of multiple linear mixing equations relating isotope ratios
of human bone collagen to those of dietary food groups shows allowable
ranges of these food groups in the diet. The results argue for a diet
of 40-65 percent oceanic animals, with the rest consisting of substan
tial amounts of animals from salt marsh and eelgrass meadows or of mai
ze, and minor amounts of C-3 plants and their consumers.