Isotopic analysis of ancient deer done: Biotic stability in collapse Period Maya land-use

Isotopic analysis of archaeological white-tailed deer(Odocoileus virginianu s) bone allows us to examine ancient human land-use through changes in deer diet. These opportunistic edge browsers are ubiquitous Mesoamerican agricu ltural crop pests. We attempt to quantify diachronic change in deer diet, a nd thereby browse availability, through analyses of stable carbon isotopes in deer collagen from a large, temporally diverse zooarchaeological deer bo ne assemblage from the Petexbatun region, Peten, Guatemala. Our finding of temporal uniformity in C4 plant consumption suggests stability in the surro unding biotic communities and in the land-use practices of the ancient Maya .