Iron age societies of Western Transbaikalia: Reconstruction of diet and lifeways

The economic foundation of the Xiongnu Empire has often been attributed to nomadic livestock. This stands in contrast to the contemporaneous development of sedentary, often fortified, settlements with evidence for handicraft production and agricultural products. This paper presents the first results of the analysis of the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bone collagen from the remains of humans and animals from Xiongnu archeological complexes located in Western Transbaikalia (late II century BCE – I century CE). Our results indicate that along with livestock products, the diet of Xiongnu people in Transbaikalia included moderate amounts of millet and riverine fish. This is further confirmed by the presence of millet seeds and fish bones among the archaeological finds at several sites. Combined paleobotanical and isotopic evidence indicate that agriculture played an important part in the subsistence economy of the Xiongnu.