Radiocarbon dates and stable isotope data for human and animal skeletal remains from a passage grave in Kierzkowo, Poland

Abstract

This dataset is comprised of coupled radiocarbon (14C) dates, and carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios received for skeletal remains of 18 humans and six animals. These remains were archaeologically-derived from a Late Neolithic passage grave in Kierzkowo, located in today’s north-central Poland. All human individuals were sexed and aged by physical anthropologists, animal skeletal remains were identified by zooarchaeologists. Collagen samples were extracted from bones, dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and measured by stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). The samples were collected and analysed to establish the absolute chronology of the tomb, estimate the frequency of burials, and reconstruct the diets of humans and animals and trace their temporal changes. This is a largest dataset for skeletal samples (n = 24) from a single megalithic tomb in East-Central Europe and has a utility to be reused in various archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies.

Keywords

• Radiocarbon dating
• carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses
• Neolithic
• modern period