Stable isotope measurements for archaeological...
Version 2 (CSV format) of database for stable isotope measurements for archaeological humans in Japan
The data table consists of fields organized into thematic groups. Each data entry is identified by a unique sequential key (Entry_ ID). The data submitter may include additional comments not covered by the existing fields (Comments), and identify the data submitter by name (ID_ submitter).
The archaeological site and sample context are described in several fields. A site name (Site name), short site description of the type of site (Site_ description), short description of burial context (Context description), a context identifier as given in original publication (Context_ ID), the name of the locality at which the site is located (Locality), of the corresponding region (Region), the site altitude in meteres (Altitude), latitude (Latitude) and longitude (Longitude) in a WGS84 metric coordinate system, whether the location of a site could not be exactly established (Exact) and if not the range in kilometres within it is expected to be located relative to the given coordinates (Radius).
Each archaeological individual from which the sample was taken is identified using the identification provided in the original publication (Individual ID) followed by a short description of the burial (Burial_type_skeletal_context Burial type). Additional sample description includes taxon (Taxon) and the corresponding name in common language (Taxon common name). Our database dataset currently contains only human data but in the future we plan to expand it to include other taxa. Osteological information includes sex identification (Sex), a text description of age (Age_ category_ individual), numeric ranges in years for minimum (Min_. age_ individual) and maximum age (Max_. age_ individual) biological age of the individual at death, and the type of bone or hair material that sampled from the archaeological individual (Ssample_ type).
Biological age categories for skeletal individuals followed the published reports. These reports used standard bioarchaeological categories based on dental and skeletal age [24]: infant: birth – 3 years; child: 3- 12 years; adolescent: 12-20 years; young adult: 20-35 years; middle adult: 35-50 years; old adult: 50 + years. In some cases, particularly with older publications, the ages of these categories may differ slightly. The age > 55 is sometimes used for ‘older adults’ in the Japanese literature. Cases where the same values are reported for minimum and maximum individual ages represent average estimated age. Some of the studies used here report very precise age estimates for sub-adults. In such cases our dataset follows these estimates, which are derived from different methods described in the studies concerned.
The chronological range of the sample is given by a minimum age (Min_chronology age (95%)) and maximum age (Max_chronology age (95%)) in years BC and AD with years BC expressed by negative numbers. Age assignment followed a hierarchical approach. Whenever available we employed direct dates from samples (e.g. radiocarbon dates, in which the calibrated 95% range is reported) or from coeval samples from the same archaeological context. If necessary, corrections for aquatic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects were applied on direct radiocarbon measurements of human bones (see below). A dataset field (Dietary_ model_selection) identifies the type of Bayesian model employed to estimate the dietary contributions from marine carbon.. If no secure dating was available from the sample context, we employed the site’s chronology given usually in the archaeological report. If this was also not available, we employed the full cultural range to which the sample was assigned. A field was used to identify the type of employed dating method (Dating_ method). Also included were fields for uncalibrated direct radiocarbon dates on sample (14C), its uncertainty (14C unc). Period tags are also used to provide traditional chronological information (Period_ tags).
Measurements of stable carbon (delta_ 13C_ coll) and nitrogen (delta_ 15N_ coll) isotopic ratios in bone collagen and hair keratin are reported together with measurements quality indicators, the percentage of elemental carbon (%C), the percentage of elemental nitrogen (%N), the carbon to nitrogen atomic ratio (C/N), and the collagen yield for bone samples (Collagen_ yield).
A reference in the format author(s)/year of publication/title identified the source publication or publications from where the data was collected (Reference), in addition to a link to the publication whenever available (Link), a Digital object identifier as a persistent identifier DOI (DOI), and the publication date or dates (Publication_ date). Macrons were not used for Japanese titles in the list.
Additional Information
| Last updated | 31 May 2021 |
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| Created | 31 May 2021 |
| Format | text/csv |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike |