Analysen stabiler Isotope zur Ernährungsrekonstruktion von bronzezeitlichen Individuen aus Kurgan 2, Ipatovo, Nordkaukasus, Russland

Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes permit a dietary reconstruction of humans and animals in the past. A large burial mound (kurgan) of "burial mound group 3" was excavated near the town of Ipatovo, Stavropol region, Russia, in 1998/99. Of the 195 graves recorded in Kurgan 2, 34 date to the Bronze Age, i.e., to the time period from the late 4 th to the end of the 2 nd millennium BCE. A Bachelor thesis at the University of Basel investigated the diet of all 36 Bronze Age individuals using stable isotope analysis. The results show a trend towards a mixed diet of C 3 and C 4 plants for the early and the late Bronze Age. C 4 plants could have been consumed directly, or indirectly as a result of the consumption of the meat or products of animals that fed on C 4 plants. This influence cannot be observed for the middle Bronze Age, when predominantly C 3 plants were consumed. The nitrogen isotope ratios suggest that products of terrestrial animals were a major component of human diets, although the additional consumption of freshwater fish is also possible. Overall, we found no conspicuous differences either between the sexes or between burials with or without exceptional grave goods.