Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41802057›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026

When collagen fails: Zinc isotopes unlock Sumerian lifeways in southern Mesopotamia.

Matteo Giaccari, Licia Romano, Silvia Soncin, Sofia Panella, Francesca Alhaique, Franco D'Agostino, Klervia Jaouen, Mary Anne Tafuri

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. When collagen fails: Zinc isotopes unlock Sumerian lifeways in southern Mesopotamia.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Matteo GiaccariDepartment of Earth Sciences, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome 00185, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-5856-3242
Licia RomanoSchool of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4176-2250
Silvia SoncinDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome 00185, Italy.
Sofia PanellaDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome 00185, Italy.ORCID 0009-0004-5084-7610
Francesca AlhaiqueBioarchaeology Service, Museo delle Civiltà, Rome 00144, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-4085-1523
Franco D'AgostinoDepartment Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00185, Italy.
Klervia JaouenGéosciences Environnement Toulouse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 5563, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse 31400, France.ORCID 0000-0003-2820-5035
Mary Anne TafuriDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome 00185, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-2913-7225

Funding

EC | European Research Council (ERC) 803676Gerda Henkel Foundation (Gerda Henkel Stiftung) AZ 03/F/25Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation 2906Sapienza Università di Roma (Sapienza) SA1241900D3F8821
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reconstructing past lifeways and diets is essential to understanding the emergence of urban societies. However, in what are now arid environments like southern Mesopotamia, poor collagen preservation has long hampered direct isotopic analysis of trophic levels. This limitation has left key gaps in our understanding of subsistence in one of the world's earliest urban heartlands. Here, we apply zinc isotope analysis to human and faunal dental enamel from the third-millennium BCE site of Abu Tbeirah (Iraq), integrating δ

Indexed as

CollagenDental EnamelDietZinc IsotopesAnimalsCarbon IsotopesFemaleHumansOxygen IsotopesCarbon IsotopesCollagenOxygen IsotopesZinc Isotopesancient dietcarbon and oxygen isotopeshuman–animal interactionsmultiproxy isotope analysisweaning practices

Identifiers

PMID41802057
PMCPMC12993939

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.