Diet in the Iron Age cemetery population at Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire, UK: carbon and nitrogen stable isotope evidence

Abstract

This paper reports d 13 C and d 15 N values for human and animal bone collagen from the middle Iron Age site at Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire, UK. The data indicate a human diet which was high in animal protein, with no evidence for any significant marine food input. No differences were found between high-status vehicle (or 'chariot') burials and the rest of the population and no other status differentiations are visible according to burial rite, age or sex groupings, although the data obtained for the older males display an unusual trend. No dietary variation is seen between two site phases and no evidence for an early immigrant group is present. The range of isotope values for the adult human group as a whole is small, indicating that the diet is likely to have been consistent over time and across the population, although two individuals stand out as unusual amongst the 62 analysed.

Emergence of Epidemic Multidrug-Resistant Enterococcus faecium from Animal and Commensal Strains

“…Although it is difficult to know the ecological drivers of this split with precision, the timing suggests that it relates to increasing insulation between the flora of humans and animals, which likely stemmed from increased urbanization, increased domestication of animals providing restricted and specialized diets (45, 46), and increasing use of hygienic measures (47, 48). This bifurcation was associated with a wholesale loss and replacement of carbohydrate utilization pathways, mediated largely by acquisition on mobile elements by strains of clade A.…”

A new approach to the study of Romanization in Britain: A regional perspective of cultural change in late Iron Age and Roman Dorset using the Siler and Gompertz–Makeham models of mortality

“…The small number of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope studies from Iron Age Britain shows that their diets relied on local food contributions, and it is considered that this reflects a population who were not highly mobile and did not contain many (if any) individuals from outside the United Kingdom, despite accessing continentally derived food and material culture (Jay 2006; Jay 2008; Jay and Richards 2007; Redfern et al 2010). Currently, only one faunal study has published strontium isotope data from Britain, and this raises the possibility for greater human mobility than expected.…”

Stable isotope analysis of a medieval skeletal sample indicative of systemic disease from Sigtuna Sweden

“…These could be a diet based on freshwater resources, migrating birds, suckling animals or on pork from animals that had themselves consumed large quantities of animal products (Privat et al, 2002;Rubenstein and Hobson, 2004;Jay and Richards, 2006). The latter scenario seems rather unlikely based on data from the single pig analysed and thus cannot account for the high d 15 N ratios obtained.…”