Diet, Status and Decomposition at Weingarten: Trace Element and Isotope Analyses on Early Mediaeval Skeletal Material

doi:10.1006/jasc.1998.0384

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volume 26, Issue 6, June 1999, Pages 675-685

https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1998.0384 Get rights and content

Abstract

Trace element and stable isotope analyses were carried out on archaeological human bone samples as well as animal bone specimens from the Early Mediaeval graveyard at Weingarten (Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany). The purpose of the study is twofold. First, a dietary reconstruction is presented aiming at both the overall nutritional pattern and intra-populational dietary differences, which become evident through cluster analysis. The existence of such differences is connected with, and explained by, social variation within the population as indicated by characteristic grave goods. In both the adult and the non-adult subsample access to Ca-rich food, and most probably animal-derived products is congruent with an affiliation to higher social ranks. Second, variables that can help evaluate the preservation of organic and mineral bone phases, such as whole bone yield of C and N, collagen yield and yield of C and N from collagen, histological preservation and Ca/P ratio were compared with respect to their possible influence on differential nutritional patterns. No clear correspondence of any of these variables with results from the palaeodietary reconstruction, i.e., no diagenetic bias was found. This is interpreted in favour of the detection of dietary groups by cluster analysis and their variation with social standing within the community of Weingarten.

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Regular ArticleDiet, Status and Decomposition at Weingarten: Trace Element and Isotope Analyses on Early Mediaeval Skeletal Material

Abstract

Journal of Human Evolution

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

Journal of Archaeological Science

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Journal of Archaeological Science

Journal of Archaeological Science

Applied Geochemistry

Journal of Chronic Diseases

Journal of Archaeological Science

Journal of Chronic Diseases

Applied Geochemistry

Geschichte der Deutschen Landwirtschaft vom frühen Mittelalter bis zum 19 Jahrhundert, 2.

Diet reconstruction with stable isotopes

In vitro decomposition of bone collagen by soil bacteria: the implications for stable isotope analysis in archaeometry

Archaeometry

Introduction to Nutrition and Metabolism.

Der Mensch und seine Haustiere. Die Geschichte einer jahrtausendealten Beziehung.

Paleobiological implications of the isotopic signatures (13C,15N) of fossil mammal collagen from Scladina cave (Sclayn, Belgium)

Quaternary Research

Bone diagenetic evolution in two French Neolithic sites

Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France

Einführung in die Geschichte des Mittelalters, 4. Aufl. München: C. H. Beck

Nonlinearity in the relationship between bone Sr/Ca and diet: Paleodietary implications

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Besitzabstufungen zur Merowingerzeit im Spiegel reicher Grabfunde aus West- und Süddeutschland

Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums

Wissenschaftliche Tabellen.

Naturräumliche Gliederung Deutschlands Blatt 187.

Human bones as archaeological samples. Changes due to contamination and diagenesis

Zinc as a paleodietary indicator: an issue of theoretical validity in bone-chemical analysis

American Antiquity

Geochemischer Atlas der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Zur alamannischen Siedlungsgeschichte des 3–7. Jahrhunderts

Rickets and cereal consumption

International Journal of Anthropology

The suitability of the iliac crest biopsy in the element analysis of bone and marrow

Journal of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Biochemistry

Analytisch-chemische Methoden in der prähistorischen Anthropologie: Spurenelemente und stabile Isotope

Regular Article
Diet, Status and Decomposition at Weingarten: Trace Element and Isotope Analyses on Early Mediaeval Skeletal Material

Paleobiological implications of the isotopic signatures (¹³C,¹⁵N) of fossil mammal collagen from Scladina cave (Sclayn, Belgium)