Dietary differences in individuals buried in a multiethnic neighborhood in Teotihuacan: stable dental isotopes from Teop
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Dietary differences in individuals buried in a multiethnic neighborhood in Teotihuacan: stable dental isotopes from Teopancazco I. Casar 1 & P. Morales 2 & L. R. Manzanilla 3 & E. Cienfuegos 2 & F. Otero 2
Received: 15 November 2015 / Accepted: 10 October 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract This study examines the diet consumed by the population at the neighborhood center of Teopancazco, Teotihuacan, in the basin of Mexico. We used stable isotope analysis of δ13C and δ15N of the dentine collagen as well as the δ13C from enamel bioapatite from teeth (M2 and M3) of 39 of excavated burials. The results show that the diet consumed by the majority of the population during childhood and adolescence had high 13C enriched values in both dietary components: δ13C enamel_bioapatite = −2.0 ‰ ± 1.5 for the whole diet and δ13C dentine_collagen = − 9.4 ‰ ± 2.1 for the protein component. According to the bi-variable and multivariable models, some individuals consumed higher amounts of C4/CAM resources than those specified in cluster #2 (70 % C4 diet; ≥50 % C4/CAM protein). An inter-tissue adjustment of 2.3 ‰ was used to relate the enamel bioapatite data to the bone bioapatite of the models. Average δ15Ndentine_collagen was 10.2 ‰ ± 2.8 with high variability especially for four individuals, three of which belong to special burials, suggesting different access to meat or marine products due to their social or migration status and/or to pathological conditions. The data suggest that maize was the staple crop of the population not only at Teopancazco but for Teotihuacan as a whole, in the form of tortillas, tamales, atole, and protein from maize-fed animals with the inclusion of other
* I. Casar [email protected]
1
Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
2
Laboratorio de Isótopos Estables, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
3
Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
CAM, C4, and C3 resources probably from the bountiful ecosystem of the basin of Mexico or from the wide trade system that Teotihuacan had with Mesoamerica. Keywords Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes . Bioapatite . Collagen . Teotihuacan . Bioarchaeology . Paleodiet
Introduction The great city of Teotihuacan was a huge multiethnic urban settlement (Millon et al. 1973), where a corporate organization (Manzanilla 1996, 2006, 2009) harnessed the massive labor needed to undertake monumental building projects, manufacture crafts, and move sumptuary goods (Manzanilla 2012b, 2015; Manzanilla et al. 2012). This complex society flourished during a 450-year span, divided in five major periods (Beramendi-Orosco et al. 2009, 2012; Soler-Arechalde et al. 2006) and was the center of a powerful civilization whose influence extended throughout much of Mesoamerica. At its peak, the city housed, as estimated by Millon, a probable population of 125,000 individuals (Millon 1970, 1981, 199
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