Multi-isotopic study of the earliest mediaeval inhabitants of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)

Abstract

Santiago de Compostela is, together with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the three main pilgrimage and religious centres for Catholicism. The belief that the remains of St James the Great, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, is buried there has stimulated, since their reported discovery in the 9th century AD, a significant flow of people from across the European continent and beyond. Little is known about the practical experiences of people living within the city during its rise to prominence, however. Here, for the first time, we combine multi-isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ18Oap, δ13Cap and 87Sr/86Sr) and radiocarbon dating (14C) of human remains discovered at the crypt of the Cathedral of Santiago to directly study changes in diet and mobility during the first three centuries of Santiago’s emergence as an urban centre (9th–12th centuries AD). Together with assessment of the existing archaeological data, our radiocarbon chronology broadly confirms historical tradition regarding the first occupation of the site. Isotopic analyses reveal that the foundation of the religious site attracted migrants from the wider region of the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly from further afield. Stable isotope analysis of collagen, together with information on tomb typology and location, indicates that the inhabitants of the city experienced increasing socioeconomic diversity as it became wealthier as the hub of a wide network of pilgrimage. Our research represents the potential of multidisciplinary analyses to reveal insights into the origins and impacts of the emergence of early pilgrimage centres on the diets and status of communities within Christian mediaeval Europe and beyond.

To the field of stars: Stable isotope analysis of medieval pilgrims and populations along the Camino de Santiago in Navarre and Aragon, Spain

“…quantity and information because of the subjectivity of the authors, who usually focused on members of the clergy and/or nobility (Andrade Cernadas, 2014). Stable isotope analysis has frequently been used in medieval contexts to explore varying reliance on different crops (Alexander et al, 2015), animal protein (Jiménez-Brobeil et al, 2016), and aquatic resources (López-Costas and Müldner, 2018), dietary variations between different socio-economic status (Jordana et al, 2019;Lubritto et al, 2017;MacKinnon et al, 2019;Martínez-Jarreta et al, 2018;Pérez-Ramallo et al, 2022a;Jiménez-Brobeil et al, 2020), and to identify local and non-local individuals (Guede et al, 2017(Guede et al, , 2018López-Costas et al, 2021;Pérez-Ramallo et al, 2022b). Here, we analyse 82 human individuals and 42 faunal specimens from 8 different archaeological sites in a relatively small area in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula that corresponds to the current regions of Navarre and Aragon (Fig.…”

Unravelling social status in the first medieval military order of the Iberian Peninsula using isotope analysis

“…The authors observed that individuals belonging to the Christian social elite of the time (10th-12th centuries CE) exhibited higher stable nitrogen isotope values (δ 15 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Peninsula 17,32,33 . However, a significant number of studies also observed no differences 4,29,[34][35][36] . Still, the fact that we could only analyse one female individual inhibits any comprehensive comparison based on sex.…”

“…Therefore, we should approach this interpretation with www.nature.com/scientificreports/ caution until further analysis of local plants and freshwater fish can provide a more reliable model. In addition, the impact of an individual's geographical origin on these dietary patterns remains uncertain and necessitates further analyses, including studies using 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, δ 18 O, and δ 34 S proxies 34,35,44 .…”

“…The dietary patterns of ancient humans can furnish insights into their social standing and origins 4 , 34 , 35 . The variability in stable carbon isotopes (δ 13 C) within terrestrial ecosystems is primarily shaped by the photosynthetic pathways employed by plants forming the foundation of the food chain 51 .…”

Shrouded in history: Unveiling the ways of life of an early Muslim population in Santarém, Portugal (8th– 10th century AD)

“…On a chemical level, the elements in the bones and teeth of these individuals can provide important information on their dietary and mobility patterns. Stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) has become an increasingly common practice in archaeological studies of the diets of humans and animals living in the past [4][5][6][7] and more recently there is an expanding corpus of isotope studies focused on medieval Iberia although, to date, many more have been focused on medieval Spain [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] than on Portugal [19][20][21][22]. Published data on the mobility of medieval Iberian populations is even more scarce than dietary research, or indeed scarcer than mobility studies for other time periods in Iberia.…”