Seite - 174 - in Das linearbandkeramische Gräberfeld von Kleinhadersdorf

Christine Neugebauer-Maresch, Eva Lenneis174 presumably due to nursing380. These burials also account for two of the three individuals with depleted δ13C values. A third depleted δ13C value (grave 5) is from a young woman (18–25) and has no immediate explanation as, for example, this individual does not have unusual Sr ratio. There are four burials with low δ15N values, three adult males (graves G. 8, G. 16 and G. 19; Figure 75) and one (G. 9) is an infant (3–4 years) who was clearly no longer nursing at death. The three adults do not stand out archaeologically (in terms of burial rite), though they evidently had a separa- te dietary history from the rest of the population at Kleinha- dersdorf. As faunal values for the region as a whole are still under study, there is no firm context for estimating animal protein consumption amongst the population at Kleinha- dersdorf, but these δ15N values may be connected to a lower proportion of meat in the diet. As male δ15N outliers tend to have high, rather than low nitrogen values this pattern is certainly unusual381. However, overall, the homogeneity of the results suggests that there were no significant dietary differences at Kleinhadersdorf and we should be careful not to extrapolate too much from these three individuals. Strontium: The strontium results are shown in Table 38. Excluding the outlying value from burial 66, the mean 87Sr/86Sr ratio is 0.7099292 ± 0.00012 (1 s. d.), which is con- sistent with strontium values found on the Loess soils of central Europe382. Overall, there are no significant differ- ences in the mean values between men and women or by age category. Defining a strict local range in strontium ratios has come under increasing criticism due the range of resources which contribute to strontium in diet and the complex mechanisms through which strontium is absorbed by the body and deposited in the molar383. Strontium may be taken up through water sources and the diet, which may include animals with fairly large ranges themselves, while the hu- man population is likely to have moved to some extent (e.  g. foraging)384. It is therefore likely that LBK groups were con- suming food and water sources off the Loess as well. In order to overcome these difficulties, the concentrati- on of strontium (Sr ppm) in the tooth can also be considered. As plants (high Sr ppm) and meat (low Sr ppm) have diffe- rent concentrations of strontium, groups with regular sour- ces of food will fall along a ‘mixing line’, when 87Sr/86Sr ratio 380. Fuller et al. 2006. 381. Zvelebil, Pettitt 2008. – Bickle et al. 2011. 382. Bentley, Knipper 1995. – Bentley 2006. 383. Bentley 2006. 384. Bentley et al. 2003. – Schweissing, Grupe 2003. – Price et al. 2004, 14. superficial material was removed from the bone by shot- blasting, samples were demineralised in 0.5M  HCl at 4 °C, rinsed with deionised water, and gelatinised in a pH  3 solu- tion for 48 hours at 75 °C. The solution was filtered, frozen and freeze-dried. Between 2.0 and 2.5  mg of dried collagen was loaded into a tin capsule for continuous flow combus- tion and isotopic analysis using an automated Carlo Erba carbon and nitrogen elemental analyser coupled with a con- tinuous flow isotope ratio monitoring mass spectrometer (PDZ Europa Geo 20/20). Each sample was measured in at least duplicate runs, using internal secondary standards (ala- nine and bovine liver standard), giving an analytical error of ±0.2‰. Results are reported in unit per mil (‰) and δ13C and δ15N values were measured relative to the VPDB and AIR standards respectively374. Results from samples with colla- gen yields <1  % or C:N ratios >3.5375, were considered un- reliable and were not included in the analysis. Strontium: Following a standardised procedure376 for strontium isotope analysis, each enamel sample (5–20  mg) was dissolved in 5  M  HNO3, and then purified by extraction chromatography using Eicrom® Sr-spec resin at the Arthur Holmes Isotope Geology Laboratory, Durham University. Aliquots of the purified Sr solution were then analysed 87Sr/86Sr using a Thermo Electron Neptune mass spectro- meter at Durham. 6.4.3 Results Carbon and Nitrogen: Overall, the population at Klein- hadersdorf had a highly homogeneous distribution of δ13C and δ15N (Table 38, 39). Although males appear to have slightly elevated δ15N values and juveniles appear slightly depleted in both δ13C and δ15N, there are no statistically sig- nificant differences between the sexes and across the age groups. This suggests that dietary practices were largely shared by the entire population at Kleinhadersdorf, with few age- or sex-based differences to what people were eat- ing. This is a pattern reproduced at other LBK sites investi- gated by the “Lifeways project”377 and is comparable to the results produced at Herxheim378 and at the Vedrovice cem- etery379. However, there are a number of outliers. The two obvious outliers with elevated δ15N values (graves 22 and 26; Figure 75) are both infants and their high nitrogen values are 374. Mariotti 1983. – Gonfiantini et al. 1990. 375. DeNiro 1985. – Ambrose 1990. 376. e.  g. Bentley et al. 2003. – Dies. 2008. 377. Bickle et al. 2011. 378. Dürrwächter et al. 2006. 379. Richards et al. 2008.