Similar procedures have documented dietary utilization by humans in North America as well as in the very dry Atacama Desert near Arica Chile and in the Canary Islands. The mummified samples from the Atacama desert include both the oldest known mummies and a near continuous record of coastal inhabitation for 10,000 to 12,000 years with diets ranging from highly dependent on marine resources to those dependent on material from the Andean Highlands. The Guanche of the Canary Islands, in contrast, were nearly exclusively dependent upon terrestrial resources, largely barley based, although surrounded by marine resources. Students are now cooperation with scientists from Tenerife and are expanding these archeology studies with tree ring analyses to reconstruct past climates on these isolated islands. Reed, BC, TR Loveland and LL Tieszen.
Vegetation analyses and diet determinations.
Tieszen, LL and M Chapman. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic status of the major marine and terrestrial resources in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile. Tieszen, LL and T Fagre. Carbon isotopic variability in modern and archaeological maize. Effect of diet quality and composition on the isotopic composition of respiratory CO2, bone collagen, bioapatite, and soft tissues.