Dietary Reconstruction of Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Populations Using Stable Isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research involves stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains from \nrural Medieval and Early Modern Christian church cemeteries located in Asturias, Spain \n(10th ??? early 19th centuries). For this master???s thesis, 122 human and 43 faunal bone \nsamples have been selected for study. This thesis takes a biocultural approach to the \nstudy of human populations. This technique aims to merge the empirical evidence from \nstable isotope analysis with historical and cultural studies to gain a deeper and more \nnuanced understand of the lives of individuals who lived in the past. Dietary studies \nprovide a unique way to assess the lives of individuals through reconstruction of their diet \nto explore populations at the level of the individual. Diet and culture are intricately linked \ntogether. In Medieval and Early Modern Spain a connection existed between diet, social \nclass, and regional identity. \nThis thesis seeks to explore five research questions that include assessing the \ndifferences between time periods, regions, sexes, age groups, and status. Comparison \nbetween those living in the Medieval period (pre-1500) and the Early Modern period \n(post-1500) will be made to investigate changes in resource availability over time. As \nAsturian communities for the most part were rather insulated, there may be regional \ndifferences between them that reflect their geographic isolation. Thus, some individuals \nwill reflect an isotopic signature that differs from the majority of inhabitants in a certain \ncommunity such that an argument for migration or pilgrimage can be made. \nWhen data on sex are available, differences between males and females may \nbe addressed isotopically. Significant differences between male and female diets may \ncorrespond to gender inequalities; however, women were the primary preparers of food \nand likely consumed what they cooked. Equal access to resources should not be \ninterpreted as equality between genders. Moreover, I predict that differences in diet \nbetween age groups, such adults and subadults, will be negligible as most children \nconsumed the same diet as adults. \nDuring the Medieval period the practice of ad sanctos burial, meaning burial \nwithin the church in a prestigious location, held special social significance. Exploring \ndifferences between those individuals buried ad sanctos and those buried in common \ngraves may be one way to explore differences in social status. Individuals buried ad \nsanctos during the Medieval period are more likely to have been aristocratic clergy or \nmembers of the nobility. By the Early Modern period this mortuary practice was still in \nplace, but lacked the meaning that it once held. For this reason, only burials from the Medieval period were compared for differences in status. Individuals buried ad sanctos \nlikely had access to the highest quality, most expensive, and rarest resources. Differences \nin isotope signatures between individuals of difference social status may be revealed \nthrough dietary reconstruction.
Author: Amy T. MacKinnon
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1846207166