Human Diet and Residential Mobility in the Central Western Argentina Colony: Stable Isotopes (13C, 15N, 18O) Trends in Archaeological Bone Samples

Abstract

Change or continuity of the human diet after the Spanish settlement in America is a topic mostly addressed in historical written documents with little use of the archaeological record and bioarchaeological or culture material. To counteract this weakness, this paper presents a study of the diet in individuals living in central-western Argentina between the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The paper, focusing on historical bioarchaeology using stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O) from bone samples of human skeletal remains found in Mendoza, Argentina. The aim is to reconstruct the human diet and its residential mobility. Our results show little inclusion of maize in these populations’ diets, significantly less than those for the same region during pre-Hispanic times. The data do not indicate a historic continuity in dietary practices between pre-Hispanic and post Hispanic human population.