Détection isotopique des modalités d'allaitement et de sevrage à partir des ossements archéologiques

The skeletal plasticity confers the property to record different biological events of life, in particular those occurred during the first years. Due to the development of instrumental analysis for over thirty years, the chemical components analysis of fossils allows us to identify dietary trends to understand the history of food resources management as well as the breastfeeding and weaning practices among ancient societies. After a description of chemical markers used today to restore the past dietary practices, this article aims at presenting a synthesis of the published works and discussing them to underline their advantages and limits.