Integrating isotopes and documentary evidence: dietary patterns in a late medieval and early modern mining community, Sweden

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between dietary patterns and social structure in a pre-industrial mining community in Salberget, Sweden c. 1470 to 1600 A.D. using a combination of different research approaches and tools, including archaeology, osteology, bone chemistry and history. The correlation between demographic criteria (sex and age) and archaeological variables (burial type and burial location) shows that Salberget was a highly stratified community.Group diets were investigated through analyses of stable isotopes (carbon, δ 13 C, and nitrogen, δ 15 N) of bone collagen from a sub-sample of individuals buried at the site (n = 67), interpreted alongside data from human dental lesions and deficiencies, animal bone waste and information on eating habits extracted from the extensive historical documents regarding mining activities at Salberget. These integrated analyses provide a clear association between social status and diet and confirm that social status, and to a lesser extent sex, gender and age, likely governed food choice and opportunity in this diverse community.

Multidisciplinary investigations of the diets of two post-medieval populations from London using stable isotopes and microdebris analysis

“…When compared to Northern European and military populations SB displayed an enriched δ 15 N coll mean value compared to all other assemblages. The likelihood that SB included higher status individuals consuming marine protein is supported by comparison to the δ 15 N coll mean values of Salberget mining community, Sweden, and Assistens cemetery, Copenhagen which are believed to include individuals consuming appreciable amounts of marine protein (Bäckström et al 2017) and brackish fish (Jørkov and Gröcke 2016), respectively. The predominantly C 3 -based diet of both the SB and QCS populations is underscored by the clear contrast with the mean δ 13 C coll value for the individuals from Siaures miestelis, Lithuania (Holder et al 2017).…”

“…Adult δ 13 C coll and δ 15 N coll mean values and standard deviations from post-medieval Northern European sites of Assistens Cemetery, Denmark (n=111) (Jørkov and Gröcke 2016); Salberget, Sweden (n=32) (Bäckström et al 2017); Stavanger Cathedral, Norway (n=7) (van der Sluis et al 2016) and military individuals from Siaures miestelis, Lithuania (n=77) (Holder et al 2017); Plymouth Hospital, UK (n=38) (Roberts et al 2012) and the Royal Naval Hospital Gosport, UK (n=24) (Roberts et al 2012). QCS is marked in red and SB in blue.…”

High status diet and health in Medieval Lisbon: a combined isotopic and osteological analysis of the Islamic population from São Jorge Castle, Portugal

“…High status people not only had easier access to a greater quantity of food but also to a wider selection of products. Previous studies on medieval population in Sweden (Bäckström et al 2017;Linderholm et al 2008), UK Richards 2007, Müldner et al 2009), Italy (Reitsema and Vercellotti 2012) and France (Colleter et al 2017) have explored the influence of status on diet, examining the correlation between isotopic values and graves goods or burial type. In these previous examples, more high status individuals consumed marine protein and/or higher trophic level terrestrial protein.…”

Henceforth fishermen and hunters are to be restrained: towards a political ecology of animal usage in premodern Japan

“…Numbers decreased significantly as damage from the eruption forced many families to move away and sell their livestock, but prior to 1707 each household had owned at least one horse. Most other Tokugawa villages discussed by Murayama (2016: 40) had a smaller number, but the pre-eruption Oyama figures for horse ownership are comparable to or even higher than those from a sixteenth-century community in Sweden (Bäckström et al 2018(Bäckström et al : 2087.…”