Isotopic dietary reconstruction of humans from Middle Bronze Age Lerna, Argolid, Greece

Triantaphyllou, Sevasti; Richards, Michael P.; Zerner, Carol; Voutsaki, Sofia

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.06.018

Cited by 50 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…At this point, breastfeeding is considered to have ceased and the individuals to be fully weaned. Because of the importance of breastfeeding and weaning behavior to the health of infants and the control of fertility and birth spacing, many studies of bone collagen from burial populations where juveniles were present have used the model above to estimate weaning age as part of their discussion of the wider dietary information from the site (e.g., Turner et al, 2007;Triantaphyllou et al, 2008;Oelze et al, 2011).…”

Section: Isotope Studies Of Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant mortality and isotopic complexity: New approaches to stress, maternal health, and weaning

Beaumont

Montgomery

Buckberry

et al. 2015

American J Phys Anthropol

214

162

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M (2015) Infant mortality and isotopic complexity: new approaches to stress, maternal health and weaning. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 157(3): 441-457, which will be published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ ajpa.22736. Materials and MethodsChildhood dentine collagen  13C and  15N profiles were produced from horizontal sections of permanent and deciduous teeth following the direction of development. These were from two 19 th -century sites (n = 24) and a small number (n = 5) of prehistoric samples from Great Britain and Ireland. ResultsThese high-resolution data exhibit marked differences between those who survived childhood and those who did not, the former varying little and the latter fluctuating widely. DiscussionBreastfeeding and weaning behavior have a significant impact on the morbidity and mortality of infants and the adults they become. In the absence of documentary evidence, archaeological studies of bone collagen of adults and juveniles have been used to infer the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding. These interpretations rely on certain assumptions about the relationship between isotope ratios in the bone collagen of the adult females and the infants who have died. The data from this study suggest a more complex situation than previously proposed and the potential for a new approach to the study of maternal and infant health in past populations. 3Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios from archaeological bone and dental tissues have been used for more than 20 years to investigate breastfeeding and weaning practices. Early studies, which revolutionized the use of bone collagen stable isotopes, identified patterns within the tissues of fetuses (less than 28 weeks gestation), neonates (28-40 weeks gestation) and infants (28 days to 1 year post-birth)(Lewis and Gowland 2007) which revealed the potential to investigate the duration of breastfeeding and weaning in past populations (e.g. Fogel et al. 1989;Katzenberg et al. 1993;Schurr 1997;White and Schwarcz 1994). Katzenberg (1996) reviewed previous interpretations of the method and cautioned against the potential effect of using the tissues of dead infants without knowing the cause of death and the potential for stress, bone turnover and growth to alter the isotope ratios of both mother and infant. Subsequently, a simplified method, based on a mathematical model of the isotope ratio variations which should be associated with a dietary change from breastmilk to the prevailing diet of the adult population, was proposed and widely accepted (Schurr 1997;Millard, 2000;Jay, 2008). This method has since been applied to data from modern, historical and archaeological tissues to estimate the timing of weaning and whether breastfeeding occurred over prolonged periods.The mathematical model has been used pragmatically despite the often-acknowledged fact that it makes several assumptions about the relationships of mother and infant body tissues, their diets, and the comparability of individual members of a population with the o...

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Section: Isotope Studies Of Weaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant mortality and isotopic complexity: New approaches to stress, maternal health, and weaning

Beaumont

Montgomery

Buckberry

et al. 2015

American J Phys Anthropol

214

162

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The geographic area of Greece has become quite thoroughly studied isotopically over the last years (Papathanasiou, 2003;Bourbou and Richards, 2007;Richards and Vika, 2008;Triantaphyllou et al, 2008;Vika et al, 2009;Petroutsa and Manolis, 2010;Vika, 2011). An emphasis is placed on prehistoric sites, where other lines of evidence are missing.…”

Section: Isotopic Evidence Of Fish Consumption In Ancient Greek Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-investigating fish consumption in Greek antiquity: results from δ13C and δ15N analysis from fish bone collagen

Vika

Theodoropoulou

2012

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Given the extensive coastline of Greece, it might be thought that marine resources would have been important to the diet in all past eras. However, isotopic studies of Greek prehistoric populations have demonstrated that marine resources generally contributed little or not at all to the diet (e.g., Papathanasiou, 2003;Richards and Vika, 2008;Triantaphyllou et al, 2008;Papathanasiou et al, 2009;Petroutsa et al, 2009;Petroutsa and Manolis, 2010). A major exception is the high-status burials in Grave Circles A and B at Mycenae, whose values suggest up to 20-25% marine foods in the diet of some individuals Hedges, 1999a, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Reconstructing the diets of Greek Byzantine populations (6th-15th centuries AD) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios

Bourbou

Fuller

Garvie‐Lok

et al. 2011

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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Documentary evidence and artistic representations have traditionally served as the primary sources of information about Byzantine diet. According to these sources, Byzantine diet was based on grain (primarily wheat and barley), oil, and wine, supplemented with legumes, dairy products, meat, and marine resources. Here, we synthesize and compare the results of stable isotope ratio analyses of eight Greek Byzantine populations (6th-15th centuries AD) from throughout Greece. The δ(13) C and δ(15) N values are tightly clustered, suggesting that all of these populations likely consumed a broadly similar diet. Both inland and coastal Byzantine populations consumed an essentially land-based C(3) diet, significant amounts of animal protein, and possibly some C(4) plants, while no evidence of a general dependence on low-δ(15) N legumes was observed. One interesting result observed in the isotopic data is the evidence for the consumption of marine protein at both coastal sites (a reasonable expectation given their location) and for some individuals from inland sites. This pattern contrasts with previous isotopic studies mainly on prehistoric Greek populations, which have suggested that marine species contributed little, or not at all, to the diet. The possibility that fasting practices contributed to marine protein consumption in the period is discussed, as are possible parallels with published isotope data from western European medieval sites.

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Isotopic dietary reconstruction of humans from Middle Bronze Age Lerna, Argolid, Greece

Cited by 50 publications

References 33 publications

Infant mortality and isotopic complexity: New approaches to stress, maternal health, and weaning

Infant mortality and isotopic complexity: New approaches to stress, maternal health, and weaning

Re-investigating fish consumption in Greek antiquity: results from δ13C and δ15N analysis from fish bone collagen

Reconstructing the diets of Greek Byzantine populations (6th-15th centuries AD) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios

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