Isotopic analysis in pre-colonial Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean.

Abstract

The islands of the southern Caribbean (islands off the Venezuelan coast), are isotopically understudied in the field of molecular anthropology, despite being a source of information regarding connections with the South American mainland. The aim of this dataset is to provide isotope concentrations from pre-colonial individuals recovered from the site of Amboina (c. 910 - 590 cal BP), in Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean. To our knowledge, this is the first isotope study on skeletal material from Bonaire. In order to establish the residential histories of the eight individuals, strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18Ο) isotopes from the dental enamel were analyzed. To investigate patterns of paleodiet, carbon isotopes from the dental enamel (δ13Cen) and carbon (δ13Ccol) and nitrogen isotopes (δ15Ncol) from the dental dentin were also analyzed. Additionally, radiocarbon dates are provided for the individuals where the analysis was possible.

Keywords

• Mobility
• diet
• pre-colonial
• Bonaire
• Caribbean
• archaeology
• anthropology