Radiocarbon dates and stable isotope data for human and animal skeletal remains from a passage grave in Kierzkowo, Poland (Late Neolithic and modern period)

Łukasz Pospieszny; Szymon Nowaczyk

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2022.108011

Radiocarbon dates and stable isotope data for human and animal skeletal remains from a passage grave in Kierzkowo, Poland (Late Neolithic and modern period)

Data Brief. 2022 Mar 3:41:108011. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.108011. eCollection 2022 Apr.

Authors

Łukasz Pospieszny^{1

2}, Szymon Nowaczyk³

Affiliations

¹ Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Rubież 46, Poznań 61-612, Poland.
² School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom.
³ Archaeological Museum in Biskupin, Biskupin 17, Gąsawa 88-410, Poland.

Abstract

This dataset is comprised of paired radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates, and carbon (δ ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ ¹⁵N) stable isotope ratios received for skeletal remains of 18 humans and 6 animals. These remains were archaeologically-derived from a Late Neolithic passage grave in Kierzkowo, located in today's north-central Poland. All human individuals were sexed and aged by physical anthropologists; animal skeletal remains were identified by zooarchaeologists. Collagen samples were extracted from bones, radiocarbon dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). The samples were collected and analysed to establish the absolute chronology of the tomb, estimate the frequency of burials, reconstruct the diets of humans and animals and trace their temporal changes. This is a largest dataset for skeletal samples (n = 24) from a single megalithic tomb in East-Central Europe and has a utility to be reused in various archaeological and palaeoenvironmental studies.

Keywords: 14C dating; Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses; Globular Amphora culture; Megalithic tomb.