Results: Paleopathological and Stable Isotope Findings

Having articulated the rationales and design of our biocultural study of the Lambayeque Valley Complex, in this chapter we now turn to the results of our analysis of the large and diachronic sample of human remains from four major sites. Oral paleopathological data are compared and analyzed from remains spanning the Formative through Middle/Late Colonial Periods to infer diet-related stress, while stable carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), and oxygen (δ18O) isotope ratios in human bone and enamel carbonate and bone collagen spanning the same periods are characterized and analyzed to infer diet composition. The isotope data generated from the four Lambayeque Biohistory Project samples are also presented in comparison to all available, published isotope data from other bioarchaeological studies of the north coast region to infer patterns of consistency and/or change across three millennia.