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Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Archaeology
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613190088556544 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Silberbauer, Francis Bruce |
| author2 | Van der Merwe, N J |
| author_browse | Silberbauer, Francis Bruce Van der Merwe, N J |
| author_facet | Van der Merwe, N J Silberbauer, Francis Bruce |
| author_sort | Silberbauer, Francis Bruce |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12562 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:12.136Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of Archaeology |
| publisherStr | Department of Archaeology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12562 Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa Silberbauer, Francis Bruce Van der Merwe, N J Archaeology Includes bibliographical references. The research reported in this thesis involves the measurement of stable carbon isotope ratios in human bone collagen as a means of reconstructing prehistoric diets. The sample population includes 67 skeletons of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and agriculturalists from the Holocene of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The aims of the thesis include the testing, through direct quantitative measurements, of the validity of archaeological conclusions about prehistoric human behaviour in the Eastern Cape. Secondly, the usefulness and applicability of the 13c tracer technique is demonstrated in what is arguable the most complex situation an archaeologist is likely to encounter. The natural environment included c3 and c4 plants, browsing and grazing ungulates, and a marine component - all subject to environmental change over the period under study - while the cultural environment included three different subsistence systems plus transition stages between them. A third, or subsidiary goal, was to test whether burial practices can be correlated with subsistence economies in this situation - that is, whether ritual and dietary behaviour formed part of some larger cultural whole such as "pastoralists" - in order to be able to assign individuals to socio-economic groups on the basis of burial pattern. The results of the laboratory analysis realize these goals with varying degrees of success and with important consequences for the archaeologist. 2015-03-04T18:58:42Z 2015-03-04T18:58:42Z 1979 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12562 eng application/pdf Department of Archaeology Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Archaeology Silberbauer, Francis Bruce Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| title_full | Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| title_short | Stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa |
| title_sort | stable carbon isotopes and prehistoric diets in the eastern cape province south africa |
| topic | Archaeology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12562 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT silberbauerfrancisbruce stablecarbonisotopesandprehistoricdietsintheeasterncapeprovincesouthafrica |