We present the open-access Mediterranean Archive of Isotopic dAta (MAIA) dataset, which includes over 48,000 isotopic measurements from prehistoric human, animal and plant samples from archaeological sites in the Mediterranean basin dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (ca. 6000 - 600 BCE). MAIA collates isotopic measurements (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr) alongside supporting information (e.g. chronology, location and bibliographic reference). MAIA can be used to explore past human and animal diets and mobility, reconstruct paleo-ecological and -climatic phenomena and investigate human-environment interaction throughout later prehistory in the Mediterranean. MAIA has multiple research applications and here we show how it can be used to evaluate sample preservation and identify data gaps to be addressed in future research. MAIA is available in an open-access format and can be employed in archaeological, anthropological, and paleo-ecological research.

Climate Change and History Research Initiative Princeton University Princeton USA

Department of Archaeology and Museology Faculty of Arts Masaryk University Brno Czechia

Department of Archaeology Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology Jena Germany

Department of Archaeology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK

Department of Bioarchaeology Faculty of Archaeology University of Warsaw Warsaw Poland

Department of Environmental Biology and Mediterranean bioArchaeological Research Advances Centre Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy

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Introducing Isotòpia: A stable isotope database for Classical Antiquity

The Mediterranean archive of isotopic data, a dataset to explore lifeways from the Neolithic to the Iron Age