Human tooth enamel carbon and oxygen stable isotope dataset from chalcolithic Inamgaon (India)

Abstract

The tooth enamel from the human remains of ten archaeological individuals belonging to a chalcolithic site at Inamgaon, District Pune, Maharashtra, were analysed for stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions. The human remains of the involved individuals come from three consecutive periods: Period I (1600–1400 BC; n = 2), Period II (1400–1000 BC; n = 4), and Period III (1000–700 BC; n = 4). Enamel carbonate of twenty teeth (n = 20), two from each individual, were analysed to understand the inter- and intra-individual variations in isotope ratios across the three habitational periods. The acquired dataset will help in understanding isotope baseline values for the region in the prehistoric context. The subsequent research works in the region can reuse our data in collation with other datasets for comparative investigations.

Keywords

• Carbon isotopes
• Oxygen isotopes
• Enamel carbonates
• Palaeodiet
• Weaning
• Chalcolithic culture