Human Dietary Ecology

Our research examines the ecology of human diets using archaeological evidence. We use ecological measures and behavioral theory to quantify human dietary change during the late Pleistocene and Holocene in the context of local ecosystems that supplied plant and animal food resources. In an archaeological context, the human diet is an ecological phenomenon because it is about the supply, harvest, processing and energetic returns of plant and animal resources from natural ecosystems.

Our recent findings (Louderback 2022) show that human dietary patterns from archaeological contexts are not always consistent with foraging theory predictions. We tested the prediction that increasing aridity caused the decline of high-return food resources (e.g. large mammals) and an incorporation of low-return food resources (e.g. small seeds) in the diets of the occupants at North Creek Shelter. Increased aridity coincided with greater use of small seeds and ground stone tools but not with increases in low-return animals or chipped stone tools. The patterns observed from these datasets may reflect different foraging strategies between males and females.

Climate, mammal, plant, and stone tool datasets from North Creek Shelter, southern Utah plotted against time. Over time, climate got warmer, small seeds were consumed more, and grinding stones (used to process small seeds) increased in abundance. But large mammals did not decrease in abundance despite climatic changes. Louderback (2022), Am. Ant.