Een Merovingische nederzetting en grafveld aan de Vlaamse kust. Een toevalsvondst aan de Ter Duinenlaan te Koksijde. Eindverslag

Diet and mobility in early medieval coastal Belgium: Challenges of interpreting multi-isotopic data

“…), was bordered by a dune belt. In this landscape, the archaeological site of Koksijde is characterised by only a short occupation ( 14 C dated from the mid-7 th to the mid-8 th century: see Dewilde et al, 2019). In terms of cultural chronology, the site belongs to the (late) Merovingian period, a statement corroborated by the house ground plans and the nature of the cultural artefacts found.…”

“…The burial ground contained both male and female individuals, with all ages represented. Parallels for the cultural context of the burials (orientation of the graves, deposition of the body, grave goods) can be found throughout the Merovingian realm (Dewilde et al, 2019;Annaert and Heesch, 2002). None of the burial customs could indicate that some of the individuals may have been non-local to Koksijde but at the same time this does not prove the opposite (given the wide distribution of Merovingian artefacts throughout north-western Europe).…”

“…It remains unclear whether the structures in the southern part of the site were still in use during the use of the burial ground. In any case, the radiocarbon dates from animal bones, which were found scattered over the site, representing consumption waste from the habitation, overlap with those of the human burials (Dewilde et al, 2019). It can thus be assumed that the animal remains and the human skeletons are closely linked.…”

“…As these maps are based on modern precipitation values, they do not account for changes in climate during the past millennia like the Late Antique Little Ice Age (which ended around mid-7 th century) and the Medieval Little Ice Age (which started around mid-13 th century), and the temperature increase in between these little ice ages resulting in the Medieval Warm Period (Büntgen et al, 2016). The average temperature in Europe during the mid-7 th to mid-8 th century (to which the Koksijde individuals have been radiocarbon dated: see Dewilde et al, 2019), was about 1.5 to 2°C cooler than today (Büntgen et al, 2016). Therefore, modern-day precipitation values may not always be directly comparable to archaeological data, but the spatial pattern of δ 18 Ow can still be useful in interpreting archaeological mobility.…”

“…When the humans of this study are compared to animals from the Koksijde site itself (Dewilde et al, 2019) and to those from a slightly younger site nearby (Müldner et al, 2014) given the clear dominance of sheep in the human consumption refuse of the Koksijde site (Dewilde et al, 2019), the saltmarsh grazing sheep thus must have played a role in the elevated isotope signals recorded from the human remains. However, as even the individuals from the group with the high δ 15 N values seem to be only higher in their δ 15 N values compared to those of the sheep (0.6‰ and 3.3‰ higher for δ 13 Ccol and δ 15 N respectively based on their average values), the isotope values from the most commonly consumed domestic mammal cannot fully explain the isotopic pattern observed from the humans, and certainly not the presence of two dietary groups.…”