Human and Faunal Isotope Data from Colonial Cape Town and Simon’s Town, South Africa

Abstract

This substantial dataset brings together human and faunal isotope data generated over the past 25 years through research projects investigating enslaved individuals associated with colonial Cape Town, including the Cobern Street, Marina Residence, and Castle of Good Hope projects, as well as individuals from nearby Simon’s Town. The dataset integrates previously published data from five peer-reviewed studies with previously unpublished carbon and oxygen isotope (C–O) data, thereby bringing together analytical results that have until now remained dispersed across individual projects and publications. By consolidating these data, the dataset provides an important comparative resource for investigating diet, mobility and provenance in colonial South Africa. More broadly, it makes accessible a unique body of evidence relating to enslaved and other historical populations during a formative period in the history of South Africa, supporting future research into the biological and social consequences of colonialism, enslavement, and population mobility at the Cape.

Keywords

• South Africa
• Simon's Town
• Cape Town
• Colonial
• strontium
• carbone
• oxygen
• nitrogen