Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic measurements of the wild animals hunted by the Norse and the Neo-Eskimo people of Greenland

• Published in: Journal of the North Atlantic
• Main Authors: Nelson, D. Erle, Møhl, Jeppe, Heinemeier, Jan, Arneborg, Jette
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Greenland; eskimo*; greenlandic
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/stable-carbon-and-nitrogen-isotopic-measurements-of-the-wild-animals-hunted-by-the-norse-and-the-neoeskimo-people-of-greenland(0dfbee0b-4f97-4000-ba60-d73b0b0876a8).html; https://doi.org/10.3721/037.004.s304; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867543290&partnerID=8YFLogxK

Isotopic measurements of the terrestrial and marine wild animal species of greatest importance to Greenlandic Norse and Neo-Eskimo people were obtained to provide a solid basis for undertaking isotopic dietary analyses of these two human groups. The samples studied were animal bones from archaeological excavations of Norse and Neo-Eskimo middens. As expected, the values for the terrestrial and marine species were found to have characteristic isotopic composition, but there is sufficient variation within each group to require detailed consideration in interpreting isotopic information on the humans.