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Camelids are among the largest wild and domestic faunas in South America and represent one of the most important taxa to pre-hispanic South America human populations. Stable isotope data from these animals play an important role in improving our understanding of human paleodiet, past human-animal interactions, Holocene environmental change, and modern camelid management. This paper presents δ 13 C and δ 15 N values taken from 91 camelid specimens distributed across western Argentina between 30° and 37° S. These samples come from three desert environments (Andean, Patagonia, and Monte) and include both modern and prehistoric samples. Camelid δ 13 C values range between −20.3‰ and −10.7‰, while δ 15 N values vary between 2‰ and 10.2‰. Mean isotope values differ by environmental context, with significant difference in δ 13 C and δ 15 N between Patagonian and Monte or Andean deserts. Camelid isotope values also vary with latitude, altitude and longitude, though differences in δ 15 N are weak, and these geographic differences are tied to climatic variables such as annual mean temperature, annual precipitation, and season of precipitation. When comparing camelid δ 13 C values from Central-western Argentina with those from Northwest Argentina and Patagonia, we see a latitudinal trend of decreasing δ 13 C values, with the most negative values occurring in southern Patagonia and the most positive values in Northwest Argentina. Variation in camelid stable isotope values and their association with particular environmental contexts shows their value as a geographic marker and possibly as a paleoecological proxy. These results highlight the need to consider the geographic origin of camelid isotope values when using them to reconstruct human diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Questions of mobility, settlement pattern, and their relation to economic organization and resource use are central to ongoing work in central-western Argentina. Here we analyze geographic patterns in the distribution of 178 human bone carbonate δ 18O samples, 46 human tooth enamel carbonate δ 18O samples, and 48 water δ 18O samples from throughout the Andean Cordillera and Monte Desert and evaluate their implications for prehistoric mobility and economy. We confirm and refine previous generalizations regarding a highland/lowland dichotomy in water δ 18O values and show that the range of human carbonate δ 18O values generally reflect available water sources. While there is little within-lifetime change in patterns of water use, we show that most individuals have stable isotope signatures consistent with water use from multiple areas or areas other than where they were ultimately interred. These data indicate high levels of residential mobility, and we conclude by discussing their implications for our understanding of regional prehistory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Archaeology has always faced the problem of making informed inferences based on an incomplete record. Zooarchaeological studies of prehistoric hunting and diet offer a clear case in point, where a range of behavioral and taphonomic factors can produce a substantial disconnect between what people actually captured and ate and what archaeologists recover and interpret. We explore this disconnect by presenting stable C and N data for wild faunas, archaeological maize, and three human burials from Fremont-period sites in southeastern Utah, the United States. We use these data to estimate faunal contributions to prehistoric diets and compare the results with previous zooarchaeological analyses of faunas from the same sites. Results for the two approaches differ sharply, with isotopic estimates showing much higher contributions of small and lowland game. We discuss these results in terms of both local prehistory and wider issues of taphonomy and dietary analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Longstanding observations about the relationship between increasing aridity and 15N enrichment in mammalian collagen values have led to an interest in their use as a paleoclimatic marker. Here we report on variability in collagen nitrogen values from five modern and two archaeological samples of black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) from the eastern Great Basin of the United States (N=178 individuals). Nitrogen δ 15N values were highly variable within all samples. Modern samples showed significant differences despite similarities in average annual precipitation and temperature. Archaeological samples were indistinguishable from each other or from modern samples taken from the same area despite independent evidence for differences in precipitation for the two prehistoric periods considered. Differences between modern samples were most strongly associated with soil characteristics. We discuss these results in light of their relationship with topography and vegetation and highlight their implications for archaeological applications of stable nitrogen analyses in several contexts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Several recent studies employ foraging theory to model early Paleoindians as big game specialists who focused on hunting large bodied, high-return animals such as mammoths. In this paper, we evaluate the specialist model by identifying the range of handling times and encounter rates within which mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) specialization would occur. We continue by using allometric relationships between body size and population density in mammals to estimate encounter rates for mammoth and other North American species. Combining these two pieces of information allows for the construction of an optimal diet curve representative of late Pleistocene prey choice, given the inclusion of mammoth. Our results seriously question the model of early Paleoindians as megafaunal specialists and suggest that foragers should have pursued a wide array of taxa including not only mammoth, but the full range of ungulates and some smaller game as well. These results accord well with empirical data on prey choice from late Pleistocene archaeological contexts from across North America. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Human beings are unique in the degree to which they rely on technology to interface with their environment. Applications of biologically derived foraging models have typically taken this technology as a given when analyzing ethnographic and prehistoric subsistence practices. This paper departs from the standard approach by treating investment in technology as a decision variable and looking at how investment decisions might be expected to vary with changes in both the time available to forage and the nature of the local resource base. The study draws attention to the importance of understanding both the costs and the benefits of technological investment and how they relate to one another. We use ethnographic and hypothetical data to demonstrate how one might represent these relationships mathematically, discuss the importance for understanding investment decisions, and explore their implications in circumstances where resources are randomly and non-randomly encountered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores variation in maize consumption among human societies in arid environments of central-western Argentina over the last 2500 years. Increasingly positive human d 13 C signatures suggest a high intake of C 4 resources (maize) until ca . A.D. 1400. After this time, the importance of maize in the diet drops and never reaches pre-Hispanic consumption rates, despite the known importance of maize to Inka and other late-prehistoric societies in the region. This decline appears to be related to colder temperatures during the Little Ice Age from the beginning of the 15th to the mid19th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]