Scientists have learned to determine the diet of ancient people by their bones.

Scientists from South Ural State University, together with colleagues from other scientific institutions, have compiled a unique database that allows them to determine the diet of Bronze Age people. The diet of these ancient peoples can be determined by the nitrogen and carbon isotopes preserved in their bones.

As SUSU Professor Andrei Epimakhov told MK, approximately 500 measurements were taken to compile the database. The work lasted at least 15 years. The bones of humans and animals from the Bronze Age (35/33 – 13/10 centuries BC) were measured in the Southern Urals and bordering Kazakhstan. Everything a person eats leaves traces in their bones. Food remains, for obvious reasons, are not preserved, but the substances deposited in the bones after consumption remain as stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, even after millennia. Using these traces, scientists can determine not specific dishes, but rather the predominant substances in the diet of ancient humans. So far, they have already determined the meat and dairy basis of the diet, as well as the age at which children were weaned and transitioned to solid food—at three years old.

According to the scientist, the database compiled by the researchers is applicable to any remains, but it can be confidently identified as belonging to people who lived in the Southern Urals during the Bronze Age. The database is only the first stage of a larger project. In the future, the plan is to reconstruct, if possible, the diet of ancient people—that is, not only their diet but also their methods of production, storage, and even disposal of food scraps. This is the primary goal for the coming years.

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