Abstract: The Lamadong site is a large necropolis belonging to Sanyan Culture in North China, which dates to the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties ( 265AD-420AD). In this research, we used carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes to explore the palaeodiet and get to know the living style of the people of this site. A broard perspective of thisstudy was to examine the historic relationship between the Sanyan and Han cultures. The contents of carbon, nitrogen, and the ratio of carbone/nitrogen of 20 human bones from this site indicated that all samples were uncontaminated, which is an important criteria for palaeodiet analysis. The values of
13C and
15N of the collagen showed that these ancestors mainly relied on C4 plants and were essentially vegetarians. We interpret this result with the advent of agriculture. It is noted that the lifestyle of Xianbei was strongly influenced by the Han culture at the Lamadong site, since they were changing from a nomadic phase to a settled farming phase. We also carried out ttest statistical analysis on different genders, and found there were no distinct sexual differences in their diet. Sample BLM63 and BLM99 have comparative higher values of 15 N, indicating that some meat was included in their diet.

Key words: Lamadong; Sanyan Culture; Murong Xianbei; Carbon and Nitrogen stable isotopes; Palaeodiet