Regional long-term analysis of dietary isotopes in Neolithic southeastern Italy: new patterns and research directions.

Isotopic analyses of prehistoric diet have only recently reached the threshold of going beyond site-focused reports to provide regional syntheses showing larger trends. In this work we present the first regional analysis for Neolithic southeastern Italy as a whole, including both substantial original data and a review of the available published data. The results show that dietary isotopes can shed new light on a number of traditional and important questions about Neolithic foodways.

Radiological tooth/pulp ratio in canines and individual age estimation in a sample of adult neolithic skeletons from Italy.

Objectives: The estimation of an individual's age at the time of death is one of the most important components in anthropological studies and is the basis for demographic studies on ancients. However, the different methods commonly used in anthropology for adult age estimation at death provide results with a high level of uncertainty. The consequence is the inability to develop demographic studies with a good degree of reliability.