The ARCHIPELAGO Archaeological Isotope Database for the Japanese Islands

Abstract

ARCHIPELAGO is an archaeological and historical database of land and sea food resources utilised in the Japanese Islands. Here we present a dataset of human bone and hair carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes measurements from Japanese archaeological sites covering the time span from the Upper Palaeolithic to the mid-nineteenth century. Reflecting the results of over 30 years of research, the dataset contains 1476 entries and covers the entire Japanese archipelago, although the data are more highly concentrated in coastal regions.

Keywords

• japan
• diet
• stable isotopes
• archaeology
• database