Multi-isotopic study of the earliest medieval inhabitants of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)

YesSantiago de Compostela is, together with Rome and Jerusalem, one of the three main pilgrimage and religious centres for Catholicism. The belief that the remains of St James the Great, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, is buried there has stimulated, since their reported discovery in the 9th century AD, a significant flow of people from across the European continent and beyond. Little is known about the practical experiences of people living within the city during its rise to prominence, however. Here, for the first time, we combine multi-isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ18Oap, δ13Cap, and 87Sr/86Sr) and radiocarbon dating (14C) of human remains discovered at the crypt of the Cathedral of Santiago to directly study changes in diet and mobility during the first three centuries of Santiago’s emergence as an urban centre (9th-12th centuries AD). Together with assessment of the existing archaeological data, our radiocarbon chronology broadly confirms historical tradition regarding the first occupation of the site. Isotopic analyses reveal that the foundation of the religious site attracted migrants from the wider region of the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, and possibly from further afield. Stable isotope analysis of collagen, together with information on tomb typology and location, indicates that the inhabitants of the city experienced increasing socioeconomic diversity as it became wealthier as the hub of a wide network of pilgrimage. Our research represents the potential of multidisciplinary analyses to reveal insights into the origins and impacts of the emergence of early pilgrimage centres on the diets and status of communities within Christian medieval Europe and beyond.This project has been supported by a grant from the ‘la Caixa’ Banking Foundation (ID 100010434; Code: LCF/BQ/ES16/11570006). Patxi Pérez-Ramallo and Patrick Roberts would also like to thank the Max Planck Society for funding for this project. Patxi Pérez-Ramallo, Hannah Koon and Julia Beaumont would like to thank the University of Bradford for funding a support the first osteological and stable isotope analysis conducted in 2015. Two of the isotopic analyses and 14C dates have been carried out with funding from the Xunta de Galicia to the CulXeo Group (ED431B 2018/47) and to the research network ‘Cultural Heritage, archaeological and technical services’ (R2016/023). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL

Basilar portion porosity: A pathological lesion possibly associated with infantile scurvy

NoRecent analysis of the juvenile (≤12 years) human remains from a 19th century site in Wolverhampton, England revealed a relatively high level of nutritional deficiency diseases within the population. Indeed, 41.7% of the 48 juvenile skeletons analysed exhibited a combination of porous and proliferative bone lesions consistent with the pathological alterations associated with nutritional stress. This paper describes a pathological lesion on the inferior surface of the basilar portion of the occipital bone, not previously reported in association with infantile scurvy, but which was exhibited by 90% (N=9) of the 10 scorbutic individuals identified during this study

The Use of Stable Light Isotopes as a Method of Exploring the Homogeneity and Heterogeneity of diet in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Temperate Europe: A Preliminary Study

NoThis paper introduces stable light isotope analysis as a method of investigating the homogeneity and heterogeneity of communities inhabiting areas of the East Alpine region during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. It will present a short review on the use of carbon and nitrogen light isotope values, and discuss how they provide insight into the diet and health of past populations. A pilot study of results obtained from the bone collagen of 14 individuals, from 6 sites located in modern-day Slovenia and northern Croatia, will also be presented. This small dataset provides an example of the values that will be collected throughout the ENTRANS Project, and how they can be used as a tool to investigate the lives of people in the past.HERA joint research programm

Response to González et al.'s comment upon "Basilar portion porosity: A pathological lesion possibly associated with infantile scurvy"

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Method of Micro-Sampling Human Dentine Collagen for Stable Isotope Analysis

YesSampling of dentine for stable carbon (δ13 C) and nitrogen (δ15 N) isotope ratios in the direction of tooth growth allows the study of temporal changes to the diet and physiological stress of an individual during tooth formation. Current methods of sampling permanent teeth using 1mm increments provide temporal resolution of six - nine months at best depending on the tooth chosen. While this gives sufficient sample sizes for reliable analysis by mass spectrometry, sectioning the dentine across the incremental structures results in a rolling average of the isotope ratios. A novel method of incremental dentine collagen sampling has been developed to decrease the collagen increment size to 0.35mm along the incremental structures thus reducing averaging and improving the temporal resolution of short-term changes within the δ13 C and δ15 N values. This study presents data for a MicroMill-assisted sampling method that allows for sampling at 0.35mm width x 1mm depth increments following the incremental growth pattern of dentine. A NewWave MicroMill was used to sample the demineralised dentine section of modern donated human third molars from Sudan and compared to data from the same teeth using the 1mm incremental sectioning method 2 from Beaumont et al. (2013). The δ13 C and δ15 N isotopic data showed an increased temporal resolution, with each increment providing data for two-four months of dentine formation. The data show the potential of this method for studying dietary reconstruction, nutritional stress, and physiological change with greater temporal resolution potentially to seasonal level and with less attenuation of the δ13 C and δ15 N values than was previously possible from human dentine.The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 31 Mar 2023

Limits and possibilities in the geolocation of humans using multiple isotope ratios (H, O, N, C) of hair from east coast cities of the USA^*

<p>We examined multiple natural abundance isotope ratios of human hair to assess biological variability within and between geographic locations and, further, to determine how well these isotope values predict location of origin. Sampling locations feature differing seasonality and mobile populations as a robust test of the method. Serially-sampled hair from Cambridge, MA, USA, shows lower δ²H and δ¹⁸O variability over a one-year time course than model-predicted precipitation isotope ratios, but exhibits considerable differences between individuals. Along a ∼13° north-south transect in the eastern USA (Brookline, MA, 42.3 ° N, College Park, MD, 39.0 ° N, and Gainesville, FL, 29.7 ° N) δ¹⁸O in human hair shows relatively greater differences and tracks changes in drinking water isotope ratios more sensitively than δ²H. Determining the domicile of humans using isotope ratios of hair can be confounded by differing variability in hair δ¹⁸O and δ²H between locations, differential incorporation of H and O into this protein and, in some cases, by tap water δ¹⁸O and δ²H that differ significantly from predicted precipitation values. With these caveats, randomly chosen people in Florida are separated from those in the two more northerly sites on the basis of the natural abundance isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen.</p

Limits and possibilities in the geolocation of humans using multiple isotope ratios (H, O, N, C) of hair from east coast cities of the USA

NoWe examined multiple natural abundance isotope ratios of human hair to assess biological variability within and between geographic locations and, further, to determine how well these isotope values predict location of origin. Sampling locations feature differing seasonality and mobile populations as a robust test of the method. Serially-sampled hair from Cambridge, MA, USA, shows lower δ2 H and δ18 O variability over a one-year time course than model-predicted precipitation isotope ratios, but exhibits considerable differences between individuals. Along a ∼13° northsouth transect in the eastern USA (Brookline, MA, 42.3 ° N, College Park, MD, 39.0 ° N, and Gainesville, FL, 29.7 ° N) δ18 O in human hair shows relatively greater differences and tracks changes in drinking water isotope ratios more sensitively than δ2 H. Determining the domicile of humans using isotope ratios of hair can be confounded by differing variability in hair δ18 O and δ2 H between locations, differential incorporation of H and O into this protein and, in some cases, by tap water δ18 O and δ2 H that differ significantly from predicted precipitation values. With these caveats, randomly chosen people in Florida are separated from those in the two more northerly sites on the basis of the natural abundance isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen.This work was partially supported by the National Geospatial Agency under grant [HM1582-08-0024].Originally presented at the IAEA International Symposium on Isotope Hydrology: Revisiting Foundations and Exploring Frontiers, 11–15 May 2015, Vienna, Austri

Kinship practices in Early Iron Age southeast Europe: genetic and isotopic analysis of burials from the Dolge njive barrow cemetery, Dolenjska, Slovenia

NoDNA analysis demonstrates that all seven individuals buried in an Early Iron Age barrow at Dolge njive, southeast Slovenia, are close biological relatives. Although group composition does not suggest strict adherence to a patrilineal or matrilineal kinship system, the funerary tradition appears highly gendered, with family links through both the male and female line being important in structuring communities. We explore the implications for our understandings of kinship and funerary practices in Early Iron Age southeast Europe.This research forms part of ENTRANS: a collaborative project involving the Universities of Bradford, Zagreb and Ljubljana, and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. ENTRANS (PI: Armit) received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 291827. The project is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, BMBF via PT-DLR, DASTI, ETAG, FCT, FNR, FNRS, FWF, FWO, HAZU, IRC, LMT, MHEST, NWO, NCN, RANNÍS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socioeconomic Sciences and Humanities programme. Research for this paper also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 834087 (COMMIOS). The ancient DNA work was supported by NIH grant GM100233, John Templeton Foundation grant 61220, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Allen Discovery Center program, a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised program of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

Scottish soldiers from the Battle of Dunbar 1650: A prosopographical approach to a skeletal assemblage

After the Battle Dunbar between English and Scottish forces in 1650, captured Scottish soldiers were imprisoned in Durham and many hundreds died there within a few weeks. The partial skeletal remains of 28 of these men were discovered in 2013. Building on previous osteological work, here we report wide-ranging scientific studies of the remains to address the following questions: Did they have comparable diet, health and disease throughout their lives? Did they have common histories of movement (or lack of movement) during their childhoods? Can we create a collective biography of these men? Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel investigated childhood movement. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of incrementally sampled dentine addressed childhood diet and nutrition. Metaproteomic analysis of dental calculus investigated oral microbiomes and food residues; this was complemented by microscopic analysis of debris in calculus from ingested materials. Selected individuals were examined for dental microwear. The extent of hydroxylation of proline in collagen was examined as a potential biomarker for scurvy. An osteobiography for each man was created using the full range of data generated about him, and these were synthesised using an approach based on the historical method for a collective biography or prosopography. The childhood residences of the men were primarily within the Midland Valley of Scotland, though some spent parts of their childhood outside the British Isles. This is concordant with the known recruitment areas of the Scottish army in 1650. Their diets included oats, brassicas and milk but little seafood, as expected for lowland rather than highland diets of the period. Childhood periods of starvation or illness were almost ubiquitous, but not simultaneous, suggesting regionally variable food shortages in the 1620s and 1630s. It is likely there was widespread low-level scurvy, ameliorating in later years of life, which suggests historically unrecorded shortages of fruit and vegetables in the early 1640s. Almost all men were exposed to burnt plant matter, probably as inhaled soot, and this may relate to the high proportion of them with of sinusitis. Interpersonal violence causing skeletal trauma was rare. Based on commonalities in their osteobiographies, we argue that these men were drawn from the same stratum of society. This study is perhaps the most extensive to date of individuals from 17th century Scotland. Combined with a precise historical context it allows the lives of these men to be investigated and compared to the historical record with unprecedented precision. It illustrates the power of archaeological science methods to confirm, challenge and complement historical evidence