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Isotopic anthropology of rural German medieval diet: intra- and inter-population variability

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Abstract

This study investigates the diet of an eleventh century CE parish community located in northwestern Germany. We assessed the isotopic compositions of human (n = 24) and faunal (n = 17) bone collagen (δ 13Ccol, δ 15Ncol) and human structural carbonate (δ 13Csc) using skeletal material recovered from the Dalheim cemetery. Traditional interpretation of the isotopic data indicates that Dalheim residents likely relied on a C3 plant-based diet and consumed some terrestrial animal products without evidence of marine resource input in the diet. Bivariate and multivariate models used as an additional means to assess diet indicate minor consumption of C4 plant foods in this community. The multivariate-isotope model identified regional similarities and differences in C4 plant/marine food consumption and in dietary protein sources by comparing data from Dalheim with those of other medieval sites from the published literature. We did not observe sex differences in this population but differences in δ 15Ncol suggest that juveniles consumed the lowest trophic level protein.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral scholarship, and grants from the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund, the University of Cape Town, the Generalitat Valenciana (VALi+d APOSTD 2014/123 and GV2015/060), and the Mäxi Foundation. The authors thank Kimberley Law, and Li Huang from Western’s Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science (LSIS) and John Lanham at the facilities of the University of Cape Town for their assistance. We wish to acknowledge K. W. Alt (formerly of the Institute of Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany) for providing the bone material. We also acknowledge Paul Szpak, Katherine Bishop, Winona Bailey, and Ian Newton for their contributions to sample preparation and analysis, and Zoe Morris for the site maps. This is LSIS contribution #317.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Karyn C. Olsen & Christine D. White

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Fred J. Longstaffe

  3. Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Frank J. Rühli & Christina Warinner

  4. Department of Archaeogenetics, Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany

    Christina Warinner & Domingo C. Salazar-García

  5. Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma, USA

    Christina Warinner

  6. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

  7. Departament de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

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  1. Karyn C. Olsen
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Correspondence to Karyn C. Olsen.

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Olsen, K.C., White, C.D., Longstaffe, F.J. et al. Isotopic anthropology of rural German medieval diet: intra- and inter-population variability. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 1053–1065 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0432-y

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