Dining in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt : determination of diet using documents and stable isotope analysis

"This study involves the reconstruction of diet for three cemetery populations (ca. 800 BC to AD 350) from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in conjunction with documentary and archaeological evidence. Very few isotopic paleodietary studies have been conducted on samples from extremely arid conditions, norhave they had the luxury of including documentary and archaeological evidence of diet. Results indicate a shift in diet from the early cemeteries (''ein Tirghi and Kellis 1 cemeteries) where inhabitants consumed a diet composed mainly of C3 foods, to a diet that included millet (a C4 plant) by the early Roman period (Kellis 2 cemetery)..."