Isotopic and skeletal approaches to diet and mobility in Ancient Nubia

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss previous isotopic research that has focused on diet and mobility in the ancient Nile Valley, with particular focus on Nubia. While dietary interpretations from carbon and nitrogen from bone collagen have been discussed elsewhere, carbonate in the Nile Valley has not been fully appreciated. We present new carbon and nitrogen data from carbonate tissues coupled with strontium to examine if and how childhood diet and migration status are related. We assess isotopic data from Tombos, Qurneh, Saqqara, Amara West, as well as the Scandinavian Joint Expedition's Pharaonic and C-Group samples. Our analysis suggests dietary practices were different between these samples. Tombos, Pharaonic, and C-Group all have markedly varied carbon values, which may suggest a more Nubian C4-based diet. The other samples, Qurneh, Saqqara, and Amara West, are all much more similar, which may reflect a stricter Egyptian C3-diet, or may be the effect of a small sample size. At Tombos, there does appear to be a difference between individuals who have a local strontium isotope signature and those that do not. However, this needs to be explored further as strontium should be coupled with other isotopes to confirm migration. This chapter illustrates the important contribution isotopes have made to dietary and migration studies in the Nile Valley while simultaneously highlighting the potential for future isotope analysis in the region.