British Iron Age Diet: Stable Isotopes and Other Evidence

Jay, Mandy; Richards, Michael P.

doi:10.1017/s0079497x0002733x

Cited by 44 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…O values shown for eastern and western Britain and the mean value for Britain (17.7 ± 0.7‰) are taken from Evans, Chenery, and Montgomery (2012). In absolute terms, the range for Britain and this site in particular for Iron Age individuals with a terrestrial, C 3 diet, is -19.9 to -21.4‰ (see Jay & Richards 2007). Where two of the chariot burials are highlighted as unusual, this is in combination with the  15 N data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

et al. 2013

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Publisher's copyright statement:Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. The majority of them are found on Chalk and the putative source region is alsoChalk. This has meant that a study using only strontium isotopes to identify mobile individuals is problematic. Here we present a range of isotope ratio data (strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur) for seven Chariot burials from Wetwang, Garton Station and Kirkburn. The majority of them are men and women who were born and lived locally, although the individual from Kirkburn is likely to have spent his childhood elsewhere. They do, however, differ quite subtly from others in the local population, probably in their relationship to a local land use pattern operating between two distinct biospheres.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

et al. 2013

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“…Rather, it appears that this is a real phenomenon which suggests that fish were hardly exploited at all despite the fact that many species would have been readily available and relatively easy to catch. The absence of fish and shellfish from peoples' diet during the preRoman Iron Age is also supported by limited amount of stable isotope evidence, which indicates that people at the time consumed a diet that was heavily reliant on terrestrial resources and almost entirely devoid of marine protein (Jay and Richards 2007;Jay 2008;Redfern et al 2010).…”

Section: Diet and Social Differentiation In Roman Britainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet, social differentiation and cultural change in Roman Britain: new isotopic evidence from Gloucestershire

Cheung

Schroeder

Hedges

2011

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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This study uses stable isotope analyses (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of human bone collagen to reconstruct the diet of three Romano-British (first to early fifth century AD) populations from Gloucestershire in South West England. Gloucestershire was an important part of Roman Britain with two major administrative centres at Gloucester (Glevum) and Cirencester (Corinium) and numerous smaller settlements and farmsteads. To investigate potential dietary differences between the rural and urban populations of Roman Gloucestershire, we compared human bone collagen stable isotope values from 32 individuals from urban Gloucester with those of 46 individuals from two rural cemeteries at Horcott Quarry and Cotswold Community, respectively. Seven individuals from urban Gloucester were buried in a mass grave; all others were buried in single inhumations. Results show small but significant differences in stable isotope ratios between the urban and rural populations which indicate that the urban population might have consumed slightly more marine and/or freshwater resources than the people living in the rural communities. We interpret this difference as a direct reflection of Rome's influence on Gloucester's population and the town's economic status. Subtle differences in stable isotope ratios were also observed at the site level, as burial practice does correlate with diet in some cases. Overall, the results from this study demonstrate that diet, as reconstructed through stable isotope analysis, is a very sensitive, if settlementspecific, indicator of social differentiation and culture change.

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“…Moreover, the d 13 C system corresponds to forest cover and has the potential to detect differences between species feeding in open versus forested environments (van der Merwe and Medina, 1991;Drucker et al, 2008). Iron Age human isotope data produced so far indicate that even in coastal sites human diets were largely terrestrial (Jay and Richards, 2007). Iron Age human isotope data produced so far indicate that even in coastal sites human diets were largely terrestrial (Jay and Richards, 2007).…”

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Multi‐isotopic analysis reveals individual mobility and diet at the early iron age monumental tumulus of magdalenenberg, germany

Oelze

Koch

Kupke

et al. 2012

American J Phys Anthropol

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For the Early Iron Age western Hallstatt culture, which includes the site of Magdalenenberg in southwest Germany, it has been proposed that people were mobile and maintained far reaching social and trading networks throughout Europe. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing multiple isotopes (strontium, oxygen, sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen) of the preserved skeletons from the Magdalenenberg elite cemetery to determine diets and to look for evidence of mobility. The analysis of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios in collagen of humans (n = 50) and associated domestic fauna (n = 10) indicates a terrestrial-based diet. There was a heterogeneous range of isotope values in both strontium (0.70725 to 0.71923, n = 76) and oxygen (13.4‰ to 18.5‰, n = 78) measured in tooth enamel. Although many of the individuals had values consistent with being from Hallstatt culture sites within southwest Germany, some individuals likely originated from further afield. Possible areas include the Alps of Switzerland and Austria or even locations in Italy. Our study strongly supports the assumption of far reaching social and economic networks in the western Hallstatt culture.

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British Iron Age Diet: Stable Isotopes and Other Evidence

Cited by 44 publications

References 36 publications

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

Diet, social differentiation and cultural change in Roman Britain: new isotopic evidence from Gloucestershire

Multi‐isotopic analysis reveals individual mobility and diet at the early iron age monumental tumulus of magdalenenberg, germany

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