Stable isotopes as indicators of change in the food procurement and food preference of Viking Age and Early Christian populations on Gotland (Sweden)

Preliminary evidence for medieval Polish diet from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes

“…4). The d 13 C enrichment among consumers of marine fish such as the Swedish population investigated by Kosiba et al (2007) is also considerably higher than enrichment observed at Giecz. If marine fish's high d 15 N values were cancelled by low d 15 N values from terrestrial protein or legumes at Giecz, more variation among human isotope ratios could be expected.…”

“…These populations consumed diets similar to that at Giecz, but were selected to illustrate particular differences and similarities among them. For example, the lack of significant amounts of fish in diet at Giecz is highlighted by comparisons with two populations exhibiting clear isotopic signals of fish: a medieval Belgian population which consumed freshwater species (Polet and Katzenberg, 2003) and a medieval Swedish population which consumed marine species (Kosiba et al, 2007). In both populations, d 15 N ratios are considerably higher than in the Giecz sample.…”

“…In comparison, populations from early medieval Germany (Schutkowski et al, 1999) and medieval England (Fuller et al, 2003;Richards et al, 2002) represent exclusively C 3 diets with no input from fish. Both the medieval Belgian population (Polet and Katzenberg, 2003) and the early medieval Swedish population (Kosiba et al, 2007) consumed diets including aquatic resources.…”

Isotopic Analysis of Faunal Material from South Uist, Western Isles, Scotland

“…The majority of previous archaeological isotopic studies have focused on reconstructing the diet of human populations, but recent research has recognised the importance of faunal isotopic composition in providing a baseline from which to interpret human collagen data (e.g., Hedges and Reynard 2007, Jay and Richards 2007, Kosiba et al 2007, O'Connell and Kimball 2006, Privat et al 2002, Richards et al 2006. Climatic changes can affect fractionation within the carbon and nitrogen cycles and result in small-scale variation in isotope signatures , Murphy and Bowman 2006, Richards and Hedges 2003, Stevens and Hedges 2004, Stevens et al 2008, van Klinken et al 1994, though more local environmental effects may also occur, such as elevated nitrogen isotope values from sea spray (Britton et al 2008, Virginia andDelwiche 1982).…”

Effects of Spoilage on Nitrogen and Carbon Stable Isotopes Signatures of the Clam Ruditapes decussatus

“…More recent approaches use stable isotope analysis in archaeology to assess human dietary preferences in the past [8,12] and in food sciences to determine food products authentication [7], traceability [22] and geographic origin [15]. To our knowledge, stable isotopes have not been used before to study seafood spoilage.…”