Mammalian stable isotope ecology in a Mesolithic lagoon at Skateholm

Abstract

Faunal remains from the settlement layers at the Late Mesolithic sites Skateholm I and II, Scania, Sweden, were subjected to stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, and ter-restrial and marine isotopic end-values for the site were established. The various stages that the Baltic Sea has passed through entail varying salinity, and although the correlation between salinity and δ13C is not strictly linear, there is a close correspondence between increasing salinity and increasing δ13C values. Accordingly we used the δ13C values for marine organisms, in this case grey seals, as indicators of the prevailing Baltic Sea stage. The Skateholm I and II settlements coincided with the early Littorina stage of the Baltic – in other words, marine conditions were brackish but not as saline as later on, during the Littorina maximum. The faunal measurements also provide a valuable background for the interpretation of human stable isotope data.