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The influence of religious identity and socio-economic status on diet over time, an example from medieval France

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Abstract

In Southern France as in other parts of Europe, significant changes occurred in settlement patterns between the end of Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Small communities gathered to form, by the tenth century, villages organized around a church. This development was the result of a new social and agrarian organization. Its impact on lifestyles and, more precisely, on diet is still poorly understood. The analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen from the inhabitants of the well-preserved medieval rural site Missignac-Saint Gilles le Vieux (fifth to thirteenth centuries, Gard, France) provides insight into their dietary practices and enables a discussion about its transformation over time. A sample of 152 adult individuals dated from 675 to 1175 AD (75 females, 77 males) and 75 specimens from 16 non-human species were analyzed. Results show the exploitation of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems as well as various breeding practices specific to each species. The use of both C4 and halophyte plants for feeding domestic animals was also observed. Concerning human dietary practices, a change seemed to occur at the beginning of the tenth century with an increase of δ15N values and a decrease of δ13C values. This corresponds to the introduction of a significant amount of freshwater resources into the diet and could be related to the evolution of the Catholic doctrine. A concomitant diversification of access to individual food resources was also observed, probably linked to the increased diversity of practice inside a population otherwise perceived as one community.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Ian Newton (UCT) for technical support with the mass spectrometers. O. Maufras as well as the two anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for commenting and improving this manuscript. S. Cravinho is acknowledged for the determination and sampling of fish remains.

Funding

This work has been financially supported by the Louis Bonduelle Fondation and the Nestlé France Fondation in the form of two Research Awards received by LM in 2016. The isotope analyses were financed by the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives-Méditerranée.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Minist Culture, LAMPEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Leïa Mion, Estelle Herrscher, Guy André & Magali Fabre

  2. Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), Nîmes, France

    Jérôme Hernandez, Richard Donat & Vianney Forest

  3. UMR 5140, Archéologie des Sociétés Méditerranéennes, Montpellier-Lattes, France

    Jérôme Hernandez

  4. AMIS, CNRS, UMR 5288, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 Allée Jules Guesde, Toulouse, France

    Richard Donat

  5. TRACES, UMR 5068, Toulouse, France

    Vianney Forest

  6. Grupo de Investigación en Prehistoria IT-622-13 (UPV-EHU)/IKERBASQUE-Basque Foundation for Science, Vitoria, Spain

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

  7. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

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  1. Leïa Mion
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Mion, L., Herrscher, E., André, G. et al. The influence of religious identity and socio-economic status on diet over time, an example from medieval France. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 3309–3327 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0754-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0754-z

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