Food Culture: Mesolithic Western Europe.

http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/staff/richards/pdf/GarciaGuixe-et-
alCurrAnthro06.pdf

Palaeodiets of Humans and Fauna at the Spanish Mesolithic Site of
El Collado. Elena Garcia Guixe´, Michael P. Richards, and M.
Eula`lia Subira Current Anthropology 47:549-556.

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The first human stable isotope results from the Spanish Levant,
from the Mesolithic (ca. 7500 BP, Mesolithic IIIA phase)
site of El Collado (near Oliva, Valencia) provide evidence for
the consumption of marine protein by humans, estimated at
approximately 25% of the dietary protein for some individuals.
Isotopic analysis of human remains from other coastal
Mesolithic sites in Europe, particularly along the Atlantic
coast, also shows significant consumption of marine foods,
but the amount of marine food consumed by the El Collado
humans was much less than at those sites. This may be because
of a different dietary adaptation or because the Mediterranean
is much less productive than the Atlantic.
"

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On the basis of the lithic material, Aparicio (1992, 89)
placed the Mesolithic occupation of El Collado between
10,000 and 6500 BC, with the phase of most intense utilization
around 7500?6500 BC. Subsequently, two radiocarbon determinations
made on human bone from burial 12 yielded
the ages of 7,570 +/-160 BP and 7,640 +/-120 BP (Aparicio
1992; Pe´rez-Pe´rez et al. 1995), which calibrate to 6630?6250
BC (Stuiver and Reimer 1993; Stuiver, Reimer, and Reimer
2005). These dates agree with Aparicio?s estimate for the age
of Layer 2 and the Mesolithic IIIA stage. Although the date
was on burial 12, the fact that all graves originated in same
layer suggests that they are all broadly contemporaneous and
belong to the Mesolithic IIIA occupation.
"

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The faunal material from Layer 2 indicates the consumption
of both marine and terrestrial animal foods. Aparicio
(1988, 1989, 1992) described a wide range of species
including mollusks, reptiles, fish, and land mammals.
The most abundant remains were those of marine and
terrestrial mollusks: marine gastropods (Musex bandaris L.,
M. trunculus L., Purpura haemastona subsp. Consul Lamk.,
Triton modiferus Link., Cerithium vulgatum Brug., Columbella
rustica L., Nassa reticulata L., Purpura haemastoma L.),
freshwater gastropods (Melanopris tricarinata Brug.),
terrestrial gastropods (Pseudotachea splendida Drap.),
and marine Lamellibranchia (Pectunculos violascense Link.,
Verus gallina L., Cardium glaucum Brug., C. tuberculatum L.
Spondylus gaederopus L., Pecten jacobaens
L., Arco noaae). Mammal bones were rare and poorly
preserved. The few identified specimens belonged to the Bovidae
[buffulo and Aurochs], Cervidae[deer], Suidae[Pigs], Rodentiae{rats
and mice], and Leporidae[Rabbits and Hares] families.

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We interpret the
human 13 values of the El Collado site as indicative of diets d C
with 100% terrestrial protein for the individuals with values
close to -19?, with those individuals with 13 values close d C
to -17.5? having a marine-protein input into the diet of
up to 25%.
"

The question is whether the protein was from plants and a portion
from marine.

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Turning to the dC13 and dN15 human data from El Collado, we
observe that there is no uniform diet at this site. Some
individuals have a nearly 100% terrestrial protein diet, largely
from animal sources. Other individuals, such as individuals
3 and 4, have clear marine input in their diets. The dN15
values of individuals with significant marine input vary, likely
indicating different sources of marine protein. Individual 3,
for example, has a d15N value of 10.2?, which probably
reflects the consumption of lower-trophic-level foods such as
marine shellfish, whereas individual 4, with a value of 12.8?,
likely consumed higher-trophic-level marine food such as fish.
What is clear from these data, however, is that despite the
fact that the site is a shell midden, marine foods were not the
dominant dietary protein sources at this site. The isotopic
values are significantly less enriched than those of Late
Mesolithic humans from Denmark and the UK but have affinities
with the values from estuarine sites in Portugal (Lubell
et al. 1994).

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