Multi-isotope analysis of the population of the lost medieval village of Auldhame, East Lothian, Scotland

Abstract

This study is one of only a handful to combine strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data for medieval human remains, in this case from individuals buried in a cemetery in the remote Scottish coastal village of Auldhame, which was abandoned in the 17 th century AD.The strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel suggests that the group was predominantly comprised of a local, static population and thus this allows the examination of the dietary habits of a remote coastal community. The combination of relatively high nitrogen isotope values with relatively low carbon isotope values within bone collagen suggests little marine protein in the diet, which is unusual given the coastal location. The community may have been consuming some freshwater fish or omnivores (pigs fed on animal diets), but also we suggest that the combination of isotope values could be explained by soil improvement methods.Some evidence for soil deepening at the site, and by association manuring, suggests the consumption of cereals was important to the diet, and may explain the high nitrogen values found in combination with terrestrial carbon isotope values. This combination of dietary isotopes has previously been suggested to be unusual for the medieval period, but we propose it is perhaps more common than originally conceived. As there are few previous multi-isotope studies from Scottish medieval assemblages on this scale, the study provides an opportunity to construct a picture of medieval and early post-medieval life in rural Scotland.

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

“…The range of δ 13 C and δ 15 N bone and tooth data is similar to previously published data from Scandinavian or British late medieval human populations (e.g., Richards 2005, 2007;Kjellström et al 2009;Lamb et al 2012; Pairwise comparisons between groups indicate that significant differences are observed between 3A and 2B (p < 1 × 10 −3 ). The highest N isotope ratios of bones (δ 15 N bone = 15.1‰) and teeth (δ 15 N tooth = 15.9‰) can be found among the five identified nobles (group A′).…”

“…S isotope analyses are being utilized more often to investigate this issue, as they can trace the consumption of marine, terrestrial and sometimes freshwater food (Nehlich 2015;Sayle et al 2016). However, in coastal regions, terrestrial and aquatic food products have similar S isotope signature (Lamb et al 2012;Nehlich 2015). In this context, S isotopes are usually utilized to identify migrants coming from inland regions (Richards et al 2003).…”

Isotopic examination of links between diet, social differentiation, and DISH at the post‐medieval Carmelite Friary of Aalst, Belgium

“…While the reconstruction of human dietary patterns using the stable isotope ratios of carbon (d 13 C) and nitrogen (d 15 N) has become widely applied in scientific archaeology, particularly in prehistory, only a small number of studies have been published on post-medieval (16th-19th c. AD) populations from Europe (Mays, 1997;Richards et al, 2006;M€ uldner and Richards, 2007;Nitsch et al, 2010Nitsch et al, , 2011Lamb et al, 2012;Roberts et al, 2012;Beaumont et al, 2013;Salesse et al, 2013). This is unfortunate since, unlike most documentary sources, skeletal remains have the ability to act as an important and unbiased source of paleodietary information which is specific to a site or population.…”

A multi‐isotope investigation of diet and subsistence amongst island and mainland populations from early medieval western Britain

“…Freshwater systems can demonstrate considerable variability with δ 34 S values ranging from −22‰ to 20‰ (Richards et al, , p. 186), and therefore to identify the consumption of freshwater fish reliably requires knowledge of local baseline δ 34 S values from riverine sources (Nehlich et al, ; Privat, O'Connell, & Hedges, ). Soil values for coastal regions often exhibit δ 34 S values of +20‰ since marine sulphates are introduced to the coastal ecosystem from sea‐spray and coastal precipitation (Lamb, Melissa, Ives, & Evans, , p. 766; Nehlich, , pp. 1–17; Richards et al, , p. 186).…”