Ethnoarchaeological and Stable Isotopes in the Study of People's Diets

Subsistence and dietary studies in the Archaeological record are poorly understood. This work describes a study on modern peoples diet undertaken within and adjacent to the Koobi Fora region of the East Lake Turkana Basin in North Horr District Northern Kenya using actualistic and isotopic analysis. The ultimate goal is to provide an interpretive framework for investigating the subsistence strategies and diet of people believed to have occupied the region during the last 10000 years. The three modern groups used in this study are not direct analogues for the Holocene peoples but do have diets similar to those proposed in the region by Barthelme (1985). However if these peoples diets are found to be discrete then it may be possible to identify similar subsistence strategies in the regions Holocene record. The data from this work is important not only to archaeologists but to botanists and ecologists.