Investigation of diachronic dietary patterns on the islands of Ibiza and formentera, Spain: Evidence from carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis

Abstract

To examine how dietary patterns may have changed in the western Mediterranean through time, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured on extracted bone collagen from fauna (n = 75) and humans (n = 135) spanning four distinct chronological periods: Chalcolithic (c.2100-1600 BC), Punic (6th-2nd/1st century BC), Late Antiquity-Early Byzantine (4th-7th century AD), and Islamic (c.10th-13th century AD) on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, Spain. The Chalcolithic, Punic, and Late Antiquity-Byzantine societies all showed evidence of a predominately C(3) terrestrial-based diet with a possible input of a small amount of marine and/or C(4) dietary resources. In contrast, the Islamic population on Ibiza had a subsistence strategy that was reliant on a significant amount of C(4) plants and/or animals fed a C(4) diet, likely millet. These results indicate a fairly constant C(3) terrestrial-based diet on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera through time, with a shift to C(4) dietary resources during the Islamic Period. Further research is needed from other Islamic populations in and around the Mediterranean to better understand this unique dietary adaptation. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:512-522, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Islamic cemetery at 33 Bartomeu Vicent Ramon, Ibiza: investigating diet and mobility through light stable isotopes in bone collagen and tooth enamel

“…0.5‰ in δ 15 N between Late Antiquity/ Early Byzantine (Sanisera and S′Hort des Llimoners, n = 61) and the Islamic period (33BVR, Es Soto and Can Fonoll, n = 170) on the Balearics (Mann-Whitney U test, Z = 3.141, p = 0.002), which could relate to a decline in the consumption of marine foods and/or animal products more generally, to an increase in the consumption of pulses or indeed to a combination of all three. This decrease in the medieval period can be taken as robust, since δ 15 N values are on average also higher in the Punic period sites on Ibiza (Can Marines, Puig des Molins and Ses Païsses de Cala d'Hort), on par with those in Late Antiquity (Fuller et al 2010;Salazar-García 2011).…”

“…In addition, the islands' port towns in particular might be expected to have had higher numbers of immigrants at any given time, some of whom would have died and been buried on the islands. Our study builds on previous work on both themes, which has increased substantially in recent years, allowing these wider comparisons to be made (Alexander et al 2015;Fuller et al 2010;Nehlich et al 2012;Pickard et al 2017;Salazar-García 2011;Salazar-García et al 2014;van Strydonck et al 2002van Strydonck et al , 2005Ziriax 2017). …”

“…Significantly higher δ In contrast to the mainland, some sites on the Balearic Islands show low but statistically significant positive correlations between δ 13 C and δ 15 N (Table 5), consistent with some contribution of marine foods in island diets. The two exceptions are the Late Antiquity/Byzantine cemetery at S′Hort des Llimoners and the large Islamic cemetery of Can Fonoll, both on Ibiza (Fuller et al 2010;Pickard et al 2017). The site means at Can Fonoll of − 19.0 ± 1.3 and 10.3 ± 0.8‰ for δ 13 C and δ 15 N (n = 112), respectively, indicate predominantly C 3 diets.…”

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)

“…Although no animal remains were available from the chronological periods associated with the human remains studied at Tossal de les Basses, we used faunal data from other sites of Eastern Iberia and Ibiza for the Middle-Late Neolithic (Fontanals-Coll et al, 2015;Salazar-García, 2009, 2011a, 2014, Roman Salazar-García et al, 2010) and Medieval (Alexander et al, 2015;Fuller et al, 2010) periods. Animal isotopic values were grouped together as ovicaprid, suid, bovid, equid, cervid, rabbit, small carnivore, dogs, cat, bird, shark and whale.…”

“…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).…”