Whose City Is This? Hucksters, Domestic Servants, Wet‐Nurses, Prostitutes, and Slaves in Late Medieval Western Mediterranean Urban Society

Mummey, Kevin; Reyerson, Kathryn L.

doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2011.00814.x

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In these four first years of life, δ 34 S values oscillate from 4.5‰ to 6.2‰, reflecting a possible movement between different environments before the age of 5 (Figure 2a and Data S1). This could also be associated with breastfeeding by a woman of different origins (e.g., a wet nurse) (Mummey & Reyerson, 2011) or displacement during early-life. In Late Medieval Europe, sources report that children could be sent to the countryside for nursing (Mummey & Reyerson, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi‐isotope analysis of primary and secondary dentin as a mean to broaden intra‐life dietary reconstruction. A case from Longobard Italy

Bernardini

Zeppilli

Micarelli

et al. 2023

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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This exploratory study proposes an original intra-life history investigation through sequential analysis of the isotopic composition of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (CNS) on both primary and secondary dentin of a tooth (M1). We focus on an elderly woman from Longobard Italy (6th to 8th c. CE), who showed an unprecedented case of cranial surgery, presented in a companion paper by Micarelli and colleagues.Sequential stable CNS isotope composition of first molar dentin collagen allows us to infer diet, mobility, health, and physiological stress between approximately 3 months after birth to 9.5 years old (primary dentin) and between early adulthood until death (secondary dentin). Isotopic results on primary dentin highlight the following: (i) a long weaning period (ending at approximately 4 years), followed by (ii) a specific diet, including the contribution of C 4 crops in early childhood (approximately 5.5 years), possibly concomitant with mobility. While secondary dentin shows a generally homogeneous diet during adulthood, the longitudinal analysis provided information on specific stresses that likely occurred in periods of difficult health conditions. This work emphasizes the importance of measuring complete dentin sequences (including secondary when present) for isotopic analysis to broaden intra-life histories in ancient populations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This could also be associated with breastfeeding by a woman of different origins (e.g., a wet nurse) (Mummey & Reyerson, 2011) or displacement during early‐life. In Late Medieval Europe, sources report that children could be sent to the countryside for nursing (Mummey & Reyerson, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi‐isotope analysis of primary and secondary dentin as a mean to broaden intra‐life dietary reconstruction. A case from Longobard Italy

Bernardini

Zeppilli

Micarelli

et al. 2023

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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“…This change in trade may have had an impact on the origin of travellers, merchants and traders present in the city. The presence of African slaves, however, continued into the Christian period and Valencia became the principal port for the import and export of slaves in the western Mediterranean (Montalvo 2000;Mummey and Reyerson 2011;Ferrer 2012).…”

Section: Diachronic Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth–fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes

Alexander

Gutiérrez

Millard

et al. 2019

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen. The diet and economy of the medieval city of Valencia (Spain) are examined over a 1000-year period during successive periods of Visigothic, Muslim and Christian rule. Bulk stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) was carried out on 67 humans and 47 animals sampled from several archaeological sites dating between the fifth and fifteenth centuries AD. Terrestrial C 3 resources dominated the diet in all periods. However, an increase in consumption of C 4 plants (e.g. millet, sorghum) and/or marine resources is detected among individuals dating to the Islamic period. Differences in the isotopic values of humans and animals between the three periods indicate a significant dietary diversity during the Islamic phases (eleventh to thirteenth century), compared with the earlier Visigothic phase (fifth-seventh century) and the later Christian phase (fourteenth and fifteenth century). Observed diachronic changes in isotopic results provide evidence for a shift in diet and subsistence, particularly during the Muslim and later Christian periods. This is linked with change in population and economic focus. Dietary diversity among Muslim individuals is hypothesised to indicate the polyculture that was reflected in varied Islamic agricultural practices and the presence of potential migrants from elsewhere in the Islamic world.

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Cities of Strangers

Rubin¹

2020

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T HE TERM 'STRANGER' -FORINSECUS, FORENSIS -WAS USED IN MEDIEVAL TEXTS to describe a whole array of groups and individuals. It was most usually used to describe newcomers from villages or small towns in proximity to a city, in the first stages of their relation to the town or city, before they became settled, incolae. These were usually people of modest meansvariously trained and skilledwhose absorption into urban life often went undocumented. 'Strangers' also described newcomers from further afield, people with distinctive dialects and occupations, associated with other cities or realms, whose presence was often reinforced by chains of migration, like German merchants in twelfth-century London, or Tuscan bankers in thirteenth-century Provence. A pathway to citizenship was open to such newcomers if they wished to associate their lives with the city. To these two groups we may add individuals and groups in towns and cities who were not foreigners, yet to whom a quality of 'strangerhood' was attached, what Simona Cerutti has called 'extranéité'. 1 Indeed, a cognate word was sometimes used, as in the statutes

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Whose City Is This? Hucksters, Domestic Servants, Wet‐Nurses, Prostitutes, and Slaves in Late Medieval Western Mediterranean Urban Society

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Multi‐isotope analysis of primary and secondary dentin as a mean to broaden intra‐life dietary reconstruction. A case from Longobard Italy

Multi‐isotope analysis of primary and secondary dentin as a mean to broaden intra‐life dietary reconstruction. A case from Longobard Italy

Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth–fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes

Cities of Strangers

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