Dental calculus is not equivalent to bone collagen for isotope analysis: a comparison between carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bulk dental calculus, bone and dentine collagen from same individuals from the Medieval site of El Raval (Alicante, Spain)

Salazar‐García, Domingo C.; Richards, Michael P.; Nehlich, Olaf; Henry, Amanda G.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.03.026

Cited by 62 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The decrease between δ 15 N tooth and δ 15 N bone exceeds 1‰ for 27% of the individuals, which are likely to have known better life conditions in their childhood than the end of their adulthood. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a pattern is reported (e.g., Hakenbeck et al 2010;Reitsema and Vercellotti 2012;Salazar-Garcia et al 2014). Most of these individuals belong to the 2B and the 3A groups.…”

Section: Women and Juveniles' Dietsmentioning

confidence: 49%

Social status in late medieval and early modern Brittany: insights from stable isotope analysis

Colleter

Clavel

Pietrzak

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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We document for the first time the diet of a privileged French population from Brittany, a region that was the center of battles between the Kingdoms of England and France until the end of the fifteenth century. We present here the results of stable isotope analyses of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur of human and animal bone and tooth collagen for a late medieval to early modern Breton population. The isotopic values observed for the Dominican convent of Rennes, Brittany, are very similar to those reported for medieval archaeological populations in Great Britain, namely they have enriched δ 15 N values combined with almost entirely terrestrial carbon signals. We discuss the consumption of young animals in a diet made up of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater resources. We report dietary differences between socioeconomic groups and gender, with women and nobles (male and female) showing patterns consistent with high animal product consumption and lower mobility. The S isotope ratios of both humans and fauna are very homogeneous and generally have coastal δ 34 S values. The convent is known to have been an interregional pilgrimage site during the early modern period, but the isotope values indicate that the identified migrants were not pilgrims. Stable isotope analysis therefore complements the available historical information on human diets and mobility.

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Section: Women and Juveniles' Dietsmentioning

confidence: 49%

Social status in late medieval and early modern Brittany: insights from stable isotope analysis

Colleter

Clavel

Pietrzak

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…These very similar and tightly clustered values suggest that the ancient Western Mediterranean commercial network and social mobility was probably responsible for people from different contemporary cultures (Punics-Romans, RomansByzantine) consuming similar types of foods and having similar dietary patterns (or at least to the extent that their isotope values were similar). This apparent homogeneity in Western Mediterranean ancient populations disappears when looking at the Medieval values from the region (Alexander et al, 2015;Salazar-García et al, 2014b), including those recorded from Tossal de les Basses. Together (n = 114) they have a δ 13 C mean value of −17.1 ± 1.2 [1σ] ‰ and a δ 15 N mean value of 11.2‰ ± 1.0 [1σ] with ranges of −19.4‰ to −13.1‰ and 8.5‰ to 13.0‰ respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Lee-Thorp, 2008;Schoeller, 1999). For these analyses bone collagen is usually the preferred substrate, mainly because it is the only considerable nitrogen source from skeletal remains (Salazar-García et al, 2014b) and has accepted quality indicators that can easily assess its isotopic integrity (De Niro, 1985;Van Klinken, 1999). Stable isotope ratios in bone collagen reflect the average isotopic signals of the main dietary protein sources consumed several years prior to death .…”

Section: Stable Isotopes and Buccal-microwear In Dietary Reconstructionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The application of these analytical techniques in Mediterranean Iberia has significantly increased during the past few years, creating an important corpus of dietary data from the region. Studies from the Palaeolithic (García-Guixé et al, 2009;Salazar-García et al, 2013a), Mesolithic (Fernández-López de Pablo et al, 2013;García-Guixé et al, 2006;Salazar-García et al, 2014a), Neolithic-Chalcolithic (Fontanals-Coll et al, 2015;Fuller et al, 2010;García-Borja et al, 2013;McClure et al, 2011;De Juan, 2004, 2007;Salazar-García, 2009, 2011a, 2014, Bronze Age (McClure et al, 2011;Polo-Cerdá et al, 2007;Romero and De Juan, 2007), Iron Age (Salazar-García et al, 2010), Punic Salazar-García, 2011b), Roman and Medieval (Alexander et al, 2015;Fuller et al, 2010;Salazar-García et al, 2014b) periods have been performed in Mediterranean Iberia and the nearby island of Ibiza. However, to date only a few studies have had a wide diachronic approach to diet in Spain (see Fuller et al, 2010;Salazar-García et al, 2013b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A combined dietary approach using isotope and dental buccal-microwear analysis of human remains from the Neolithic, Roman and Medieval periods from the archaeological site of Tossal de les Basses (Alicante, Spain)

Salazar‐García

Romero

García-Borja

et al. 2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Stable isotope and dental-microwear analysis are methods commonly used to reconstruct dietary habits in modern and ancient human populations. However, it is rare that they are both used together in the same study, and here both methods are combined to obtain information on human dietary habits from the site of Tossal de les Basses (Alicante, Spain) through time. Middle Neolithic, Late Roman and Medieval (Islamic) individuals have been analyzed for carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of bone collagen, as well as for buccal-dental microwear. Overall, δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotopic values show that for all periods the diet was mainly based on C 3 terrestrial resources. However, the isotopic signature suggests a small, but clear amount of marine protein consumption during the Neolithic period and possibly also for a few individuals from the Medieval period. When compared to other studies from the region, it is also possible to see that the consumption of C 4 resources was much more extensive during Medieval times than in previous periods. Microwear scratch density and length found for teeth from the Neolithic and Medieval periods reflect a diet in which tough foods predominated, requiring substantial pressure to chew in comparison with what was recorded for the Roman individuals. Combined with the δ 15 N data, the microwear signature suggests a higher input of marine/gritty resources among the Neolithic and Medieval populations compared to the Romans. Our findings also suggest that dietary patterns might be explained by cultural and technological population factors rather than habitat resource availability.

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“…b Site map with excavated areas indicated by diagonallined boxes. While the majority of human burials were recovered from area B (now covered by an outbuilding), some human remains were also excavated in area G. Isolated faunal bones were found in grave fill and in a location adjacent to the north side of the church (area W) medieval European sites using isotopic analyses (e.g., Barrett and Richards 2004;Müldner and Richards 2007;Salamon et al 2008;Barrett et al 2008Barrett et al , 2011Salazar-García et al 2014a;Alexander et al 2015;Salazar-García et al 2016). Even though saltwater fish is believed to have been a part of most medieval European diets by the fourteenth century, historical documents suggest that rural Central European populations far removed from the ocean were more likely to consume freshwater fish (e.g., pike and perch) than marine foods (Adamson 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Olsen

White

Longstaffe

et al. 2016

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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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 13 C col , δ 15 N col ) and human structural carbonate (δ 13 C sc ) using skeletal material recovered from the Dalheim cemetery. Traditional interpretation of the isotopic data indicates that Dalheim residents likely relied on a C 3 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 C 4 plant foods in this community. The multivariate-isotope model identified regional similarities and differences in C 4 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 15 N col suggest that juveniles consumed the lowest trophic level protein.

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Dental calculus is not equivalent to bone collagen for isotope analysis: a comparison between carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bulk dental calculus, bone and dentine collagen from same individuals from the Medieval site of El Raval (Alicante, Spain)

Abstract: Dental calculus is not equivalent to bone collagen for isotope analysis: a comparison between carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bulk dental calculus, bone and dentine collagen from same individuals from the Medieval site of El Raval (Alicante, Spain)

Cited by 62 publications

References 41 publications

Social status in late medieval and early modern Brittany: insights from stable isotope analysis

Social status in late medieval and early modern Brittany: insights from stable isotope analysis

A combined dietary approach using isotope and dental buccal-microwear analysis of human remains from the Neolithic, Roman and Medieval periods from the archaeological site of Tossal de les Basses (Alicante, Spain)

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

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