Dental calculus and isotopes provide direct evidence of fish and plant consumption in Mesolithic Mediterranean
In this contribution we dismantle the perceived role of marine resources and plant foods in the
subsistence economy of Holocene foragers of the Central Mediterranean using a combination of dental
calculus and stable isotope analyses. The discovery of fish scales and flesh fragments, starch granules
and other plant and animal micro-debris in the dental calculus of a Mesolithic forager dated to the end
of the 8th millenium BC and buried in the Vlakno Cave on Dugi Otok Island in the Croatian Archipelago
demonstrates that marine resources were regularly consumed by the individual together with a variety
of plant foods. Since previous stable isotope data in the Eastern Adriatic and the Mediterranean region
emphasises that terrestrial-based resources contributed mainly to Mesolithic diets in the Mediterranean
Basin, our results provide an alternative view of the dietary habits of Mesolithic foragers in the
Mediterranean region based on a combination of novel methodologies and data.