New Publication: New insights into ancient Maya diets and migration using sulfur isotope signatures
"A new study in ancient Maya bioarchaeology and geochemistry spearheaded by Dr. Claire Ebert at the University of Pittsburgh and co-authored by an interdisciplinary team including Dr. Asta Rand at Memorial University, introduces a new approach to investigate ancient Maya diet and mobility using stable sulfur isotope analysis from burials. While a variety of scientific techniques exist to gather information about these questions, sulfur isotopes are unique because their values vary depending on where people obtained their food – from the land, rivers, or sea – and where someone lived in the last 5-10 years of their life. When combined with other evidence of movement (e.g., strontium isotopes that correspond with where a person was born), sulfur values allow archaeologists to document where people moved over the course of their life. The study analyzed 114 human remains from 12 sites across western Belize, dating between 300 BC and 1800 AD. The results show that the western Belize Maya had a stable diet dominated by maize and terrestrial animals, though some individuals ate food from different strategically accessed resources, such as freshwater animals, to minimize the risk of food shortfalls. The analyses also showed that some people had non-local sulfur signatures, pinpointing them as recent migrants to western Belize, including one young person who may have moved over 80 km from colonial Spanish missions in central Guatemala. The study is the largest examination of archaeological human sulfur isotope analyses undertaken in Mesoamerica so far and provides a foundation for novel insights into both subsistence practices and migration.
The paper, "Sulfur isotopes as a proxy for human diet and mobility from the Preclassic through Colonial periods in the Eastern Maya lowlands" is published in PLoS ONE.
[Text provided by the authors].