Technical note: Interpreting stable carbon isotopes in human tooth enamel: An examination of tissue spacings from South Africa

Stable isotope analysis of skeletal tissues is widely used in archeology and paleoanthropology to reconstruct diet. In material that is poorly preserved or very old, the tissue of choice is frequently tooth enamel, since this is less susceptible to diagenesis. The relationships between carbon isotope ratios in tooth enamel (d13Cenamel), bone collagen (d13Ccollagen), and bone apatite (d13Cbone apatite) are, however, not well understood. To elucidate these, we have measured all three indicators in archeological humans from the western and southern Cape coastal regions of South Africa. The correlation between d13Cenamel and d13Ccollagen is good (R2 = 0.71 if two outliers are excluded, n = 79). The correlation between d13Cenamel and d13Cbone apatite is weaker (R2= 0.37, n = 33) possibly due to bone diagenesis. No systematic offset between d13Cbone apatite and d13Cenamel was observed in this sample of archeological humans. Intertooth comparisons of d13Cenamel in three individuals showed little variation, despite the different ages of crown formation. Carbon isotope ratios in both enamel and bone collagen are good proxies for d13Cdiet. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2012. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.