Fresh Water Fish, Food Resource Used by the Inhabitants of the Gowhar Tepe Site, Mazandaran

Authors

1 PHD Student of Tehran university

2 Tarbiat Modares university Faculty member

Abstract

The analysis of stable isotopes concentrated on carbon and nitrogen in skeletal elements (such as bone and teeth), to reconstruct and interpret of past diets and provides accurate predictions too excellent results of this important issue, because these ratios are normally different be-tween certain categories of food. Freshwater fish have played an important role in human diet over time. Evidence of fish consumption is inferred mainly from the study of food remains, and weapons and tools, and indirectly from the pattern of wear on tools, iconography, artifacts, and fish vertebrae used for necklaces and also isotopic analysis is one of these. Carbon isotopic var-iation is widespread and different in freshwater environments. This diversity is dominant on the Organisms that live in these ecosystems, even if these ecosystems are geographically close to each other and not far together. Nevertheless, δ15N variation in the whole world, for freshwater fish is identical and similar. The stable nitrogen isotopes in terrestrial plants and animals are depleted relative to fish from fresh or marine water habitats. But, this variation in δ13C is widespread and different. It is noteworthy that there is an overlap of the isotopic 13C levels be-tween freshwater fish and Terrestrial resources. Stable isotopic analysis of carbon and nitrogen in bone and tooth collagen is now a well-established technique and a reliable method for the reconstruction of ancient human diet, because isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in the human body tissues reflects the consumed food. Also this analysis has become a valuable tool in studies of ecosystem function and animal ecology. In terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems they have been used successfully in a variety of studies such as to describe major flow pathways of organic matter in food webs, reveal food web structure, determine vegetation selectivity of herbivores, track animal movements and migrations or elucidate feeding strate-gies and relationships among individual animals. Stable isotopes have also been used to moni-tor watershed level processes such as inputs of terrestrial organic material to aquatic ecosys-tems presented an overview of studies which examined carbon isotope signatures in freshwater and marine sediments to indicate carbon flow and to track terrestrial inputs.The basic principle of using carbon and nitrogen isotopes in paleo-diet determination is based on the observation that the isotope ratios of these elements (δ13C, δ15N), mainly in collagen, will reflect the cor-responding isotopic ratios in the protein of the diet, with adjustment for fractionation through the system. The analysis of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen is used in the reconstruction of Diets, because the isotopic differences found in foods, transferred to the bones of individuals who consume these foods and evaluation of isotopic ratio of these elements in bones, can de-termine the kind of food that people consumed. In this Paper, we investigate the possibility of existence freshwater fish in diet of inhabitants of Gowhar Tepe by using of the Carbon and ni-trogen stable isotope analysis of tooth collagen of 12 human skeletons of the Iron Age Gowhar Tepe cemetery. This cemetery is located on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, the East Ma-zandaran province. The geographical location of the site on the shore of Caspian Sea, and near the Neka-’ River would have provided abundant and reliable food sources. Because of the ex-tensive isotopic variation in fresh water ecosystems, studying the fresh water fish should be done in order to reconstruct the diet better, accordingly by studying samples tested Can be part-ly Approved the hypothesis of consumption of freshwater fish in the diet of inhabitants of Gowhar Tepe. Although, more reasoned proved of this issue is depends on Analysis of the re-gion’s freshwater organism’s environment.

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Main Subjects

References

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