Paper short abstract:

Stable isotope analysis of sequential increments of human dentine allows reconstruction of juvenile diet and physiology. These isotope profiles constitute a new approach to the study of maternal health and infant feeding in the past and enable comparison of surviving infants with those who died.

Paper long abstract:

Nutrition in utero and during the perinatal period has a huge impact on the morbidity and mortality of infants and the adults they become. In the absence of documentary evidence, the analysis and comparison of the light stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in the skeletal tissues of adult females and juveniles has been used to infer the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding within cemetery populations. These interpretations rely on the assumption, based on modern studies using tissues with a fast turnover such as hair and fingernail, that the isotope values in the bone collagen of a mother and her newborn child are the same. This model has been challenged by recent research demonstrating that mothers can have bone collagen δ15N and δ13C which differs significantly from their deceased infants. As archaeological bone samples are by definition taken from neonates and infants who have died, their isotope values may be affected by changes in the nitrogen balance as the result of ante-mortem stress or pathology. This study compares diachronic isotope profiles from the teeth of juveniles who died with those from survivors to investigate normal and abnormal, survivable and non-survivable, responses.