Isotopic evidences regarding migration at the archeological site of Praia da Tapera: New data to an old matter

The isotopic results suggest that none of the analyzed individuals would have come from the Plateau region. They probably were born and raised on the coast, including the site area. The wider 87Sr/86Sr variation found in the women may be signifying a patrilocal post-marital residential system to this group. The isotopic results also suggest that marine resources such as fish were the main food source. Despite the terrestrial fauna not being an important part of the protein diet, the boars analyzed from the site presented strontium values incompatible with the local geology, suggesting that these animals were hunted on the continent. This first isotopic study on a shallow coastal site with ceramic reinforces the idea of complexity regarding migration and trade networks between groups that inhabited the coast and the Plateau of Serra Geral around a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans in the region.