The Isotope Database for Archaeological Biological Remains in China (IDABRC)

The isotopic systems are as follows, and the data are organized into 5 tables available: 1) δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S data from human bone, dentine, hair and muscle collagen; 2) δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S data from animal bone and dentine collagen, as well as from hair, horn, antler, wool, leather, and meat; 3) δ13C, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr data from human tooth enamel and bone bioapatite; 4) δ13C, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr data from animal tooth enamel, bone and dentine bioapatite; 5) δ13C and δ15N data from archaeological plant remains. Each table of database is structured into the following categories: 1) Site information: this section contains site name, Chinese name, modern province, culture/chronology, context and site location’s latitude and longitude according to WGS84 coordinates (derived from Baidu Maps if not reported). 2) Sample identifiers: archaeological or laboratory codes. 3) Chronological information: radiocarbon dates when available; otherwise, cultural periodization and stratigraphic attribution. 4) Biological information: for humans—ethnicity, sex, individual age; for animals—age. 5) Burial information: present only for humans, especially when it excavated from a certain tomb or burial container. This section includes burial/feature type, burial role (tomb owner or human sacrifice), social rank and grave goods (present or absent). 6) Taxonomic information: not present for humans. For animal and plants samples, this section contains the general category or family, genus & species, and common name. 7) Sample metadata: the analysed component (e.g. bone, enamel, dentine, hair, muscle), testing proxy (collagen, bioapatite) and sampled element (the part of the bone or tooth analysed). 8) Diagenetic assessment: quality screening result for δ13C, δ15N and δ34S measurements, based on published collagen and sulfur preservation indicators. Each sample is assigned a categorical flag (“Pass”, “Fail” or “Unknown”) depending on whether the reported quality metrics meet commonly accepted thresholds. 9) Isotopic data: δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr values, together with quality indicators (collagen yield, %C, %N, C/N ratios, %S, C/S ratios, N/S ratios) and laboratory details. For results published only as averages, sample sizes are reported. 10) Reference data: full bibliographic details (APA format), year of publication and DOIs where available.