Fig 1.
Map and photos of Tell Tweini.
(a) Map of the Eastern Mediterranean showing the location of Tell Tweini in modern-day Syria. (b) Photo of Bronze and Iron Age houses from the Field A excavations (taken by Joachim Bretschneider). (c) Photo of Middle Bronze Age grave with Cypriote ceramics (taken by Joachim Bretschneider). (Map was generated using GMT 5.2.1. with the final layout created using Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 V.23.1.1.).
Fig 2.
Early Bronze Age plant and animal isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
Estimated natural forage δ15N value calculated by subtracting 4‰ from the average δ15N values of the deer and hare [8].
Table 1.
Summary of the mean ± SD isotopic results of the plants by time period from Tell Tweini.
For the time periods and total columns, the first line = δ13C (mean ± SD); second line = δ15N (mean ± SD); third line = number of samples (n).
Table 2.
Summary of the mean ± SD isotopic results of the humans and animals by time period from Tell Tweini.
For the time periods and total columns, the first line = δ13C (mean ± SD); second line = δ15N (mean ± SD); third line = number of samples (n).
Fig 3.
Middle Bronze Age plant, animal and human isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
Estimated natural forage δ15N value calculated by subtracting 4‰ from the average δ15N values of the deer (e.g., [8]).
Fig 4.
Late Bronze Age plant and human isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
Estimated natural forage δ15N value calculated by subtracting 4‰ from the average δ15N values of the deer, hare and gazelle (e.g., [8]).
Fig 5.
Iron Age plant and animal isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
Estimated natural forage δ15N value calculated by subtracting 4‰ from the average δ15N values of the deer and gazelle (e.g., [8]).
Fig 6.
Diachronic plant isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
(a) Violin plots of the diachronic Δ13C values calibrated with the AIRCO2_LOESS program [55, 56] for plant species at Tell Tweini. Horizontal dashed lines reflect approximate water status Δ13C boundaries determined by Wallace et al. [85, 86]. (b) Violin plots of the diachronic δ15N values for plant species at Tell Tweini. Estimated natural forage δ15N value (mean ± SD) calculated by subtracting 4‰ from the average δ15N values of the wild animals (deer, hare and gazelle; [8]). Emmer and free-threshing wheat results are elevated during all periods of study and reflect that manure was used as a fertilizer for these crops. Boxes in the middle of the violins represent the mean δ13C and its 95% confidence intervals for each animal group (Plots generated using RStudio V.1.4.1717 with final layout created using Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 V.23.1.1).
Fig 7.
Diachronic animal isotopic results from Tell Tweini.
Violin plots of the diachronic (a) δ13C and (b) δ15N results of the major animals at Tell Tweini. Boxes in the middle of the violins represent the mean results with 95% confidence intervals (Plots generated using RStudio V.1.4.1717 with final layout created using Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 V.23.1.1).