Publications by authors named "Sven Steinbrenner"

The transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture stands as one of the most important dietary revolutions in human history. Yet, due to a scarcity of well-preserved human remains from Pleistocene sites, little is known about the dietary practices of pre-agricultural human groups. Here we present the isotopic evidence of pronounced plant reliance among Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers from North Africa (15,000-13,000 cal BP), predating the advent of agriculture by several millennia.

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Sulfur isotope composition of organic tissues is a commonly used tool for gathering information about provenance and diet in archaeology and paleoecology. However, the lack of maps predicting sulfur isotope variations on the landscape limits the possibility to use this isotopic system in quantitative geographic assignments. We compiled a database of 2,680 sulfur isotope analyses in the collagen of archaeological human and animal teeth from 221 individual locations across Western Europe.

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Mass graves are usually key historical markers with strong incentive for archeological investigations. The identification of individuals buried in mass graves has long benefitted from traditional historical, archaeological, anthropological and paleopathological techniques. The addition of novel methods including genetic, genomic and isotopic geochemistry have renewed interest in solving unidentified mass graves.

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Article Synopsis
  • Zinc isotope ratios in dental enamel are an emerging tool for dietary studies in archaeology, but concerns exist regarding contamination from gloves.
  • A study examined how nitrile and latex gloves may affect Zn isotope ratios during enamel sampling from early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Brazil.
  • The research found that while gloves can release Zn, significant contamination did not occur during sampling, and variability in Zn isotopes was mostly linked to the developmental stage of the teeth rather than glove use; further investigation into Zn isotopes as a breastfeeding indicator is needed.
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