The Influence of Social Status and Ethnicity on Diet in Mediaeval Tallinn as Seen Through Stable Isotope Analysis

Abstract

Food encodes social and cultural values and has an important role to play in defining identities. In mixed populations, diet can be used to distinguish between 'us' and 'them'. This study investigates the extent to which the inhabitants of mediaeval Tallinn, an important trading centre, used food to maintain distinct identities. Human skeletal material was selected from four mediaeval cemeteries in Tallinn, chosen to represent different groups within Tallinn's society, likely including foreign merchants, foreign monks, urban Estonians and low-status Estonians, and from a nearby rural site, Kaberla, for comparative purposes. The individuals were investigated using carbon, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotope analysis. The results indicate that while all analysed individuals consumed diets based on C 3 plants and animals consuming C 3 plants, some individuals also consumed small amounts of C 4 plants (likely millet) or seafood. C 4 plants were consumed by the urban residents buried at the Church of the Holy Spirit and one or two individuals from Sulevimägi. It is thought that millet was an imported food consumed by the middle class. Marine foods were consumed by the individuals at St Catherine's Church. These individuals were also identified as migrants and were likely either monks or foreign merchants. The results suggest that in some cases the people of Tallinn did use food as a means of maintaining social statuses and potentially ethnicities. Only one individual (LTL06) was identified as having had a significant change in diet during life, with the inclusion of marine foods in adulthood. This may indicate that this individual attained or aspired to higher social status during life and adhered to Christian dietary customs.

Children of the grave: Investigating non-adult feeding practices in medieval and early modern Estonia through stable isotope analysis

“…The mean δ 13 C values suggest that the staple non-adult diet in medieval and early modern Southern Estonia was based on a terrestrial C 3 ecosystem, dominated by C 3 plants or C 3 plant consumers and their products. These results are in line with δ 13 C data from other coeval Baltic sites [ 43 , 88 , 89 ], and reflect the common subsistence in that period, with cultivations of barley, oats, rye, legumes, vegetables, fruits and berries constituting the staple [ 47 , 49 ]. This can be also inferred by comparing the population values with the animal baseline, which reasonably reflects the food chain in the area ( Fig 3 ; S1 Fig in S1 File ).…”

“…This suggests an overall similar diet for children living in different contexts. The small difference in δ 13 C may be attributable to slight variations in food habits and subsistence, confirming previous studies reporting on a staple diet including mainly C 3 foodstuffs in both town and countryside contexts [ 43 , 49 ]. From this baseline, some townspeople showed greater isotopic variation, possibly reflecting social and ethnic differences, and/or individual dietary choices.…”

“…Germans, who were traders, clergy, and honorable craftsmen) and the local lower class (the Undeutsch , i . e non-Germans or Estonians, including craftsmen considered less honorable and poor citizens, mostly from the hinterlands) has been reported among the urban populations [ 41 – 43 ]. Furthermore, several subsequent famines and epidemics, often intertwined with warfare, caused large population losses [ 41 , 44 ] ( Fig 1 ).…”

Giving a Voice to the Little Ones: The Bioarchaeology of Children in the Baltics

“…The biorchaeological case studies reported were numerous (Allmäe, 2006(Allmäe, , 2008a(Allmäe, , 2010Peets et al, 2010Peets et al, , 2012, as were the insights into stature and sexual dimorphism issues (Allmäe, 1995(Allmäe, , 1997(Allmäe, , 2000(Allmäe, , 2008bHeapost, 2003). Additionally, several biomolecular studies focused on diet and nutrition in ancient Estonian populations (Lõugas et al, 1996;Allmäe et al, 2012;Tõrv & Meadows, 2015;Lightfoot et al, 2016;Oras et al, 2018;Aguraiuja-Lätti & Lõugas, 2019;Tõrv, 2019). Specific paleopathological investigations were dedicated to cases of traumatic injuries (Kalman, 2000a(Kalman, , 2000b(Kalman, , 2000cMalve, 2019aMalve, , 2019bMalve, , 2020a, inflammatory lesions (Kalman, 1999), syphilis (Kalman, 2000d;; and the biomolecular study by Majander et al, 2020), infectious disease (Malve, 2020b) oral pathologies (Allmäe, 1999a(Allmäe, , 1999bLimbo, 2004Limbo, , 2011Limbo, , 2013, and stress markers (Limbo, 2006(Limbo, , 2008a(Limbo, , 2008b(Limbo, , 2009Allmäe & Limbo, 2010).…”

Multi-isotopic analysis of zooarchaeological material from Estonia (ca. 200–1800 CE): Variation among food webs and geographical regions

“…It has become a staple of multidisciplinary investigations, however, some regions such as the eastern part of Europe have been trailing behind in regards to fully embracing the method, as the arrival of modern scientific methods have reached the area with a certain delay. During recent years, there has been a sizeable increase in the number of publications of stable isotope analyses from the Baltic country of Estonia, yet most data have focused on analyzing human skeletal remains [1][2][3][4][5] with little published evidence of related zooarchaeological material [6].…”