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The relationship between infant and child feeding practices and early mortality is difficult to address in past societies. Here, stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope measurements of bulk bone and sequential dentine samples of deciduous second and/or permanent first molars of four younger children, one older child, one late adolescent, and two young adults (n = 8) from Moro de Alins cave, north-eastern Iberia, are used to explore the potential impact of early-life nutrition on mortality in the Bronze Age. Isotope results are compatible with generally short exclusive breastfeeding and standard weaning periods compared to other pre-modern populations. However, there are differences in exclusive breastfeeding mean δ13C values and in Δ13C trophic shifts between exclusive breastfeeding and immediate post-weaning isotope values for those individuals who survived into adolescence and adulthood and those who did not. While the former seem to be consistent with trophic distances published for modern mother–infant pairs, the latter are above most of them. This may suggest that individuals who consumed similar foods to their mothers or suffered from less physiological stress during or after weaning had greater chances of survival during early childhood and beyond. Post-weaning seems to have been a particularly stressful period of life, where a number of instances of patterns of opposing isotopic covariance compatible with catabolic changes, often preceding death among non-survivors, are detected. This outcome shows the key role of nutritional and/or physiological status in early-life morbidity and mortality among partially and especially fully weaned children from pre-antibiotic, pre-vaccination, and poor sanitation contexts and proposes that adult survival is rooted in early life experiences, in keeping with the developmental origins of health and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, archaeology has undergone a profound transformation. The inclusion of techniques from a wide range of other sciences, as well as the specific contribution of physical anthropology, genetics, and paleodemography using the analyses of human remains, has enabled the reconstruction of some key aspects of past populations such as mobility, diet, physical activities, and health status. In addition, the emergence of gender archaeology has led to a great renewal in how societies in the past are conceptualized and approached. Although the gender approach completely relies on the accuracy of the method used for estimating the sex of individuals, the increasing number of publications on this issue rarely focuses on the criteria on which these results are based. The aim of this paper is, firstly, to present the anthropological data available for the Iberian Mesolithic, the Neolithic, and the Copper Age (8th–3rd millennia B.C.) and the analysis of this from the perspective of the “sex ratio.” This demographical indicator has allowed us to detect a higher proportion of male individuals than female ones in most of the sites analyzed. Secondly, the different causes of this systematic disproportion (cultural, methodological, and biological) are discussed, concluding that the methodological bias in favor of males presented in research over 40 years ago still exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological evidence from Cova Gran de Santa Linya suggests that during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, the site was used as a livestock enclosure where the accumulated excrements were burned, generating a sequence known by the term fumier. Here we present the results of an integrated study of silica phytoliths, dung spherulites, and mineral composition of sedimentary matrix from the remaining Holocene sequence. The use of fire to sanitize the space had important consequences for the preservation of dung spherulites and the accumulation of phytoliths. Phytolith assemblages indicate that the animals enclosed in the cave were mostly sheep that exploited the pastures nearby the site during the year. In this sense, the results from our modern plant reference collection challenge the assumption that grass inflorescence phytolith can be used as a seasonality indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope ratios (Sr/Sr, δO, δC) in dental enamel and bone apatite from 82 individuals interred at Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age burial sites near Madrid, Spain, to discern variations in dietary patterns and identify possible migrants. Questions about mobility patterns and subsistence practices have played a central role in the scholarship of Late Prehistoric central Iberia in the last 20 years, but the archaeological record has still not been able to provide clear answers. This study adds valuable data to this line of research. The results of this study suggest that migration from regions with different geologic landscapes was uncommon in these communities. For the identified migrants, based upon the Sr/Sr values, several of the identified non-local individuals originate from regions with substantially older lithological features and possible places of origin are being investigated. As it is not possible to discern individuals who may have moved from regions with similar geologic landscapes using this methodology, these data provide the minimum number of migrants, and it is conceivable that the number of non-locals in this sample may be higher. Combining multiple lines of material and biological evidence and the completion of Sr isotope mapping in the Iberian Peninsula will help to clarify these findings. Stable carbon isotope data provide new and direct evidence of regional changes in consumption patterns. In particular, this study provides some possible evidence for the consumption of C plants in third-millennium bc central Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]