A multi-proxy bioarchaeological approach reveals new trends in Bronze Age diet in Italy

Abstract

This study investigates changes in dietary practices and subsistence strategies in Bronze Age Italy integrating isotopic analyses with archaeobotanical and archaeozoological data. By investigating food habits, we contribute to reconstructing human lifestyles and highlighting possible links with the economic/social organization when the rise of stratified societies and new economic activities affected subsistence practices. Stable isotopes analyses in humans and animals were performed on 6 Italian sites dating from 2300 to 900 cal. BC, followed by a complete review of additional 19 sites, which forms the basis of a diachronic and geographic comparison for Bronze Age Italy. The geographic analysis shows a more varied diet in northern and central Italy, compared to the south. The diachronic analysis highlights the homogeneity of food habits during the Early Bronze Age, contrary to the later phases when an increase in dietary variability and a higher animal protein consumption are revealed. The Middle Bronze Age appears as a pivotal moment in protohistoric societies, a phase of transition. The consumption of different foodstuffs highlights the importance of cultural exchanges, resulting in a sort of “food globalization”, although environmental and climatic fluctuations could also have affected dietary patterns, favoring some crops over others.

Isotopic reconstruction of the subsistence strategy for a Central Italian Bronze Age community (Pastena cave, 2nd millennium BCE)

“…As fast-growing, warm-season crops, their cultivation probably reduced agricultural risk as a low-investment rain-fed crop (Stevens et al 2016). The impact of these plants on the Italian BA diet has been previously outlined also by applying carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis (Tafuri et al 2009(Tafuri et al , 2018Varalli et al 2015;Romboni et al 2022), supporting the role of the human population dispersal across the peninsula (Saupe et al 2021;Romboni et al 2022;Varalli et al 2022) for the dissemination of these resources.…”

“…The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis on bioarchaeological remains is considered able to identify the dietary habits and, in turn, the economy and social behavior of past communities (e.g., Shoeninger and DeNiro 1984;Katzenberg 2008;Fontanals-coll et al 2015;Goude et al 2016;De Angelis et al 2019Varalli et al 2021Varalli et al , 2022Romboni et al 2022). Briefly, the collagen from bones is extracted, and its carbon and nitrogen isotopic signature would relate to the dietary habits.…”

“…Human dietary habits are one of the most retained markers of the people and societies' cultural identity (De Angelis et al 2019) and have been extensively dissected through stable isotope analysis across the Italian BA communities (e.g., Varalli et al 2015Varalli et al , 2022Tafuri et al 2018;Arena et al 2020;Romboni et al 2022). Indeed, these findings are consistent with the archaeological and archeozoological data, suggesting that the BA human groups had a mixed economy, mainly based on agriculture and breeding practices tightly related to the local ecosystem.…”

“…However, whether these C 4 plants were gathered as wild plants or served as animal fodder rather than extensively cultivated and consumed by people is not fully understood. Despite the local or occasional consumption of these crops (Varalli et al 2015;Tafuri et al 2018), the diet of people living in the Italian peninsula during the BA seems to have primarily consisted of C 3 plants to be complemented by a moderate amount of animal protein (Arena et al 2020;Varalli et al 2022). Indeed, the prevailing horticultural regime for Peninsular Italian communities had long depended on wheat (Triticum sp.)…”

First Radiocarbon Dating of Neolithic Stone Cist Graves From the Aosta Valley (Italy): Insights Into the Chronology and Burial Rites of the Western Alpine Region

“…Isotopic ratios were first explored visually and then included in Bayesian models of dietary composition using FRUITS (Fernandes et al 2014), including as dietary resources C 3 plants, terrestrial animals, and freshwater fish. Previous isotopic research strongly suggest that millets were, in the Italian peninsula, part of human diet only starting from the Early Bronze Age (Varalli et al 2022). For this reason, we did not include C 4 plants in the model.…”