‘From the mouths of babes’: A subadult dietary stable isotope perspective on Roman London (Londinium)

Abstract

Citation for published item: edfernD ee nd qowlndD ee nd willrdD endrew nd owellD vindsy nd qr¤ okeD hrren @PHIVA 9prom the mouths of es9 X sudult dietry stle isotope perspetive on omn vondon @vondiniumAF9D tournl of rheologil sieneFD IW F ppF IHQHEIHRHF Further information on publisher's website: httpsXGGdoiForgGIHFIHITGjFjsrepFPHIUFHVFHIS Publisher's copyright statement: c 2017 This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Highlights First temporal analysis of childhood diet in a northern Roman city  Periods of economic instability reflected in dietary choices  Evidence for the childhood consumption of freshwater fish Abstract Londinium (AD 48-410) was the focus for Roman administration and trade in Britain; it was established and inhabited by people from across the Empire who continued to practice their diverse food-ways. Roman London was a unique settlement, whose fluctuating economic and political fortunes throughout Roman occupation are clearly evidenced in the archaeological and historical records. This study conducts stable isotope analysis of the diet of a large sample of subadults (0-20 years old) dating from the 1 st to 4 th centuries AD in London. It includes an assessment of breastfeeding and weaning practices, but aims to focus more on the diets of older children and the transition to 'adult' dietary behaviours. The rib bones of 100 subadults and 20 adults were sampled for carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Using these data, we identified an infant feeding pattern that differed from contemporaneous sites in Italy and which remained unchanged over time, a special diet for nursing females, and temporal changes in diet, whereby subadults consumed greater quantities of freshwater resources compared to adults during periods of economic instability.

The dietary impact of the Norman Conquest: A multiproxy archaeological investigation of Oxford, UK

“…However, the two lowest δ 15 N values are from the 11th century, suggesting variability in food supply during the transition. The consumption of freshwater fish, with the Thames being a readily accessible source, is considered unlikely due to the low δ 13 C values from freshwater fish from Roman sites in Oxford [46]. The intensification of agricultural production, however, by heavier manuring resulting in a higher nitrogen isotope baseline for consumed cereals [47], may have contributed to the higher δ 15 N values rather than pork consumption alone.…”

Babes, bones, and isotopes: A stable isotope investigation on nonadults from Aventicum, Roman Switzerland (first–third century CE)

“…In Roman Britain, for example, supplementary foods (broadly preparations made of cereals) were introduced by six months of age (or by the age of one and a half years at Queenford Farm), and gradually, children have been fully weaned by the age of four years (e.g. Fuller et al, 2006a;Redfern et al, 2012Redfern et al, , 2018. In Italy, the largest stable isotopic study by Prowse and colleagues (2004Prowse and colleagues ( , 2005Prowse and colleagues ( , 2008 for the site of Isola Sacra, indicated that supplementary foods were introduced by the end of the first year and that weaning was completed by two-two and a half years of age.…”

“…These practices have received increased interest in Roman bioarchaeology, especially through the application of stable isotopic investigation (Dupras et al, 2001;Prowse et al, 2004Prowse et al, , 2005Prowse et al, , 2008Dupras and Tocheri, 2007;Fuller et al, 2006a;Redfern et al, 2012Redfern et al, , 2018Eerkens et al, 2018; small non-adult samples are also analyzed by Keenleyside et al, 2009;Rutgers et al, 2009;Tykot, 2013, 2018). To date, no large-scale stable isotopic studies have examined infant feeding practices in Roman populations from Switzerland, but a pilot study of 11 non-adults and two females from Roman Petinesca (Switzerland) combines tooth histology (presence of a neonatal line) and stable nitrogen and carbon values in order to clarify a breastfeeding signal and birth survival (Lösch et al, 2013, Siebke et al, 2019.…”

Investigating infant feeding strategies at Roman Bainesse through Bayesian modelling of incremental dentine isotopic data

“…Stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains has been widely applied in Roman contexts to investigate adult and infant diets (Müldner, 2013). Nitrogen and carbon stable isotope analyses of bones and teeth have been employed to estimate breastfeeding and weaning age onsets (Dupras, Schwarcz, & Fairgrieve, 2001; Dupras & Tocheri, 2007; Fuller, Molleson, Harris, Gilmour, & Hedges, 2006; Prowse et al, 2008; Redfern, Gowland, Millard, Powell, & Gröcke, 2018). Group comparisons of isotopic measurements on collagen extracted from bone remains of adult females and non‐adults apparently suggest fairly consistent weaning times across the Roman Empire, that is, between 2 and 4 years of age (Prowse, Saunders, Fitzgerald, Bondioli, & Macchiarelli, 2010; Prowse et al, 2008; Redfern et al, 2018).…”