| Abstract: |
The recognition that bone strontium:calcium ratios reflect dietary levels of strontium and that seawater has a high strontium content led some archaeologists to infer that seafood consumption produces high Sr:Ca ratios in bone. Analyses of seawater and of marine organisms reveal, however, a marine trophic effect comparable to the trophic effect seen in terrestrial food chains. This marine trophic effect reduces the Sr:Ca levels in seafood such that marine dietary resources have Sr:Ca levels comparable to those of terrestrial resources. Thus, bone Sr:Ca ratios can not differentiate consumption of marine and terrestrial resources. Also, Sr:Ca of bones from archaeological sites where seafood was an important component of diet were found to be within the range of entirely terrestrial diets.
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