Assessment of nutritional stress in famine burials using stable isotope analysis

Abstract

Objectives: We compared δ 15 N and δ 13 C values from bone and dentine collagen profiles of individuals interred in famine-related and attritional burials to evaluate whether individuals in medieval London who experienced nutritional stress exhibit enriched nitrogen in bone and tooth tissue. Dentine profiles were evaluated to identify patterns that may be indicative of famine during childhood and were compared with the age of enamel hypoplasia (EH) formation to assess whether isotopic patterns of undernutrition coincide with the timing of physiological stress.Materials and Methods: δ 15 N and δ 13 C isotope ratios of bone collagen were obtained from individuals (n = 128) interred in attritional and famine burials from a medieval London cemetery (c. 1120-1539). Temporal sequences of δ 15 N and δ 13 C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from a subset of these individuals (n = 21).Results: Results indicate that individuals from attritional graves exhibit significantly higher δ 15 N values but no significant differences were found between burial types for the sexes. Analyses of dentine profiles reveal that a lower proportion of famine burials exhibit stable dentine profiles and that several exhibit a pattern of opposing covariance between δ 15 N and δ 13 C. EH were also observed to have formed during or after the opposing covariance pattern for some individuals. Conclusions:The results of this study may reflect differences in diet between burial types rather than nutritional stress. Though nutritional stress could not be definitively identified using bone and dentine collagen, the results from dentine analysis support previous observations of biochemical patterns associated with nutritional stress during childhood.

Bronze Age innovations and impact on human diet: A multi-isotopic and multi-proxy study of western Switzerland

“…However, as similar trends have already been highlighted in other communities, other factors, especially physiological ones, may have caused the enrichment in 15 N in dentine [143,144]. Changes in δ 15 N values can be also related to extended periods of breastfeeding, episodes of physiological stress and catabolism generated by starvation, long-term disease (infection, injury) or harsh climatic conditions [145][146][147][148][149][150]. In catabolic states, the organism uses amino acids from its own body tissues to synthesize new proteins, leading to an increase of δ 15 N values [147,[151][152][153].…”

Identifying Cohorts Using Isotope Mass Spectrometry: The Potential of Temporal Resolution and Dietary Profiles

“…The δ 13 C and δ 15 N for the individuals from this study are consistent with the wider range of values obtained from contemporary York and London sites, and show the same overall shift towards a more marine life-long diet in the later medieval period. Walter et al (2020a) observed a shift toward higher δ 15 N from subadults to adults in the London populations. Three of the individuals from St Stephen's demonstrate this shift between the dentine formed in their childhood and adolescence and the later-forming bone, suggesting that there was a common difference between the diet of juveniles and adults during these periods or that the physiological effect of growth is affecting the recorded δ 13 C and δ 15 N in the collagen.…”

“…Stephen 's Chapel,Westminster (Sk 1,2,3,4 and 5), and mean bone collagen isotope ratios for High Medieval (HM) and Late Medieval (LM) populations from York Richards 2007: Müldner and and from London (Walter et al 2020a;Walter et al 2020b) [3] has a gradually rising profile for δ 13 C, rising across the age of tooth development by 0.7 ‰. δ 15 N is high at birth, falling rapidly from 13.8‰ to a minimum of 11.6 ‰ at age 2 years.…”

“…As there is little published faunal data from London during this period, these data have been divided into High Medieval (PWC92 1, 2 and 3) and Late Medieval individuals (PWC92 4 and 5) for comparison with human bulk bone δ 13 C and δ 15 N from contemporary sites from York, England (Müldner and Hedges 2007;Müldner and Richards 2007) and well-dated individuals from medieval St Mary Spital, London, England (Walter et al 2020a;Walter et al 2020b). The data from this study are shown with the published bulk bone collagen means for the High Medieval and Late Medieval populations from York and London (Fig.…”

Food at the heart of the Empire: dietary reconstruction for Imperial Rome inhabitants

“…However, several confounding factors should be borne in mind in that evaluation. Metabolic and physiological processes could bias the straightforward relationship between stable isotopes and diet reconstruction (Bocherens et al 1994;Cherel et al 2005;Mekota et al 2006;Waters-Rist and Katzenberg 2010;Pecquerie et al 2010;Reitsema 2013;O'Connell 2017;Walter et al 2020).…”