Isotopic evidences regarding migration at the archeological site of Praia da Tapera: New data to an old matter Murilo Q.R. Bastos a,b, ⁎, Roberto V. Santos c , Robert H. Tykot d , Sheila M.F. Mendonça de Souza e , Claudia Rodrigues-Carvalho b , Andrea Lessa b a Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil b Setor de Antropologia Biológica, Departamento de Antropologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil c Departamento de Geoquímica e Recursos Minerais, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil d Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, SOC107, 4202 East Fowler Ave., Tampa, FL 33620, USA e Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rua Leopoldo Bulhões 1480, 21041-210 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil abstract article info Article history: Received 29 June 2015 Received in revised form 6 October 2015 Accepted 22 October 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Bioarcheology Isotopic analysis Brazilian archeology Migration Fisher–hunter–gatherer The present study aims to elucidate, using δ 13 C, δ 15 N and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analysis of tooth enamel and dentin, some as- pects of the geographic origin and the dietary habits of 42 individuals associated with a ceramic group buried in the coastal shallow site of Praia da Tapera, located on the island of Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil. The ceramic shreds found on this site would be associated with groups that inhabited the Southern Brazilian Plateau, and the presence of this evidence at Praia da Tapera and some other coastal sites raises important questions, not yet resolved, about the origin and the way of life of these pre-Columbian coastal groups that emerged in the re- gion around 1500 years BP. 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 87 Sr/ 86 Sr variation found in the women may be signifying a patrilocal post-marital residential system to this group. The isotopic results also sug- gest that marine resources such as fish were the main food source. Despite the terrestrial fauna not being an im- portant 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 shal- low 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. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The occupation of the coast of Santa Catarina state, located in south- ern Brazil, happened about 6000 years B.P. The first inhabitants were fisher–gatherer groups that built shell mounds that could reach more than 30 m in height and some hundreds of meters in length, known in Brazil as Sambaquis (Prous, 1991, DeBlasis et al., 1998). The Sambaqui builders, however, were not alone on the coast; there were other hunter–fisher–gatherer groups in the area since at least the fourth mil- lennium before the Christian era, as indicated by radiocarbon dating of the deepest levels of the site of Pantano do Sul (Rohr, 1977, Schmitz and Bittencourt, 1996). These groups occupied sites known as “shallow sites”, which are primarily characterized by thin archeological packages, a much less significant number of shells compared to the Sambaqui sites and a predominance of fish among the faunal remains, although a high diversity and quantity of terrestrial fauna is also found. Radiocarbon dates available for the coastal sites indicate that around the first millennium of the Christian era the Sambaqui system was al- ready in decline (Gaspar, 1996, Lima, 1999/2000). Simultaneously to the end of this system, the coastal occupation is marked by the appear- ance of shallow sites with ceramics. This ceramic type, associated with the Itararé ceramic tradition, was originally related to ceramic groups from the Plateau of Serra Geral in Santa Catarina, which is located about 100 km away from the coast. The ceramics found on the coast associated with groups that inhabited the plateau is a topic of great relevance for understanding the occupation process in this area, which includes issues such as migra- tion and intergroup contacts. These topics are widely discussed in differ- ent perspectives and methodology by Brazilian archeologists (e.g. Beck, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4 (2015) 588–595 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geologia, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília, Universidade de Brasília, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil. E-mail addresses: mbastos@mn.ufrj.br, muriloquintans@gmail.com (M.Q.R. Bastos). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.10.028 2352-409X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 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