Abstract: To reveal the paleodiet and subsistence strategies of the Early Xianbei, this paper carried a stable isotope analysis on the human and animal bone from the Zhalainuoer, Tuanjie and Dongwuzhuer sites. The results show that human have a mixed diet of C3 and C4. We infer that these C4 foods probably were provided by the minor millet agriculture in Hulunbeier grassland. High δ15N values of the humans show that the Early Xianbei people have a heavy reliance on the animal proteins, indicating that human probably mainly relied on the pastoralism and hunting. Stable isotope C, N and S analysis of human and animal bones show that their diet mainly come from local terrestrial system except for one horse individual (DW M3 ① ), which likely come from other areas and indicate of a outlier.

Key words: Early Xianbei; Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulphur stable isotope; Paleodiet; Subsistence strategies; Millet agriculture; Pastoralism