The Middle Byzantine menu: Palaeodietary information from isotopic analysis of humans and fauna from Kastella, Crete

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 63-72

  Bourbou, Chryssa ^a   Richards, M P ^b,c  

^a 28th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities ^*  (Greece)

^b MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY   (Germany)

^c DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

13; 15N; Greece; Middle Byzantine; Palaeodiet; Stable isotopes; Weaning

Indexed keywords

EID: 33847343397     PISSN: 1047482X     EISSN: 10991212     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/oa.855     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. 15N) à la determination du régime alimentaire des populations humaines et animals Durant les périodes antique et médiévale. Archives des Sciences 44: 329-340.
2. Braudel F. 1966. La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II, Vols 1 and 2. Armand Colins: Paris.
3. Braund D. 1996. Fish from the Black Sea: Classical Byzantium and the Greekness of trade. In Food in Antiquity, Wilkins J, Harvey D, Dobson M (eds). University of Exeter: Exeter; 162-170.
4. Brothwell DR. 1981. Digging Up Bones (3rd edn). Oxford University Press/ British Museum (Natural History): Oxford.
5. Brown TA, Nelson DE, Southon JR. 1988. Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30: 171-177.
6. Buikstra JE, Ubelaker DH (eds). 1994. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series 44: Fayetteville.
7. Dalby A. 1996. Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece. Routledge Press: London.
8. Dembinska M. 1985. Diet: a comparison of food consumption between some Eastern and Western monasteries in the 4th-12th centuries. Byzantion 55: 431-462.
9. DeNiro MJ. 1985. Post-mortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to paleodietary reconstruction. Nature 317: 806-809.
10. Dupras TL, Scwarcz HP, Fairgrieve SL. 2001. Infant feeding and weaning practices in Roman Egypt. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115: 204-211.
11. Fildes VA. 1986. Breasts, Bottles and Babies: A History of Infant Feeding. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.
12. Fildes VA. 1995. The culture and biology of breastfeeding: an historical review of western Europe. In Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives, Stuart-Macadam P, Dettwyler KA (eds). Adline de Gruyter: New York; 101-126.
13. Garvie-Lok S. 2001. Loaves and fishes: A stable isotope reconstruction of diet in Medieval Greece. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Alberta: University of Calgary.
14. Herring DA, Saunders SR, Katzenberg MA. 1998. Investigating the weaning process in past populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 105: 425-439.
15. Herrscher E, Bocherens H, Valentin F, Colardelle R. 2001. Comportements alimentaires au Moyen Âge à Grenoble: application de la biogéochemie isotopique à la nécroploe Saint-Laurent (XIIIe-Xve siècles, Isère, France). Compte-rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris, Section Sciences de la Vie 324: 479-487.
16. Hill S, Bryer A. 1995. Byzantine porridge: tracta, trachanás and tarhana. In Food in Antiquity, Wilkins J, Harvey D, Dobson M (eds). University of Exeter Press: Exeter; 44-54.
17. Jackson R. 1989. Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire. Norman: London.
18. Katzenberg MA. 2000. Stable isotope analysis: a tool for studying past diet, demography and life history. In The Biological Anthropology of the Human Skeleton, Katzenberg MA, Saunders SR (eds). John Wiley and Sons: New York; 305-327.
19. Kazhdan A. 1997. The peasantry. In The Byzantines, Cavallo G (ed.). University of Chicago Press: Chicago; 43-73.
20. Mays SA. 1997. Carbon stable isotope ratios in mediaeval and later human skeletons from northern England. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 561-568.
21. Mays SA. 2000. New directions in the analysis of stable isotopes in excavated bones and teeth. In Human Osteology: In Archaeology and Forensic Science, Cox M, Mays S (eds). Greenwich Medical Media: London; 425-438.
22. Millard AR. 2000. An evaluation of the possible use of nitrogen isotopes to detect milking in cattle. In Human Ecodynamics: Proceedings of the AEA Conference of September 1998, Bailey G, Charles R (eds). Oxbow Books: Oxford; 134-140.
23. Motsias Ch. 1998. Ti etrogan oi Byzantinoi. Kaktos Press: Athens.
24. Müldner G, Richards MP. 2005. Fast or feast: reconstructing diet in Later Medieval England by stable isotope analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 32: 39-48.
25. Papathanasiou A. 2001. A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Neolithic Alepotrypa Cave, Greece. BAR International Series 961, Archaeopress: Oxford.
26. Papathanasiou A. 2003. Stable isotope analysis in Neolithic Greece and possible implications on human health. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13: 314-324.
27. Papathanasiou A, Larsen CS, Norr L. 2000. Bioarchaeological inferences from a Neolithic ossuary from Alepotrypa Cave, Diros, Greece. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 10: 210-228.
28. Polet C, Katzenberg MA. 2003. Reconstruction of the diet in a mediaeval monastic community from the coast of Belgium. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 525-533.
29. Privat KL, O'Connell TC, Richards MP. 2002. Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Berinsfield, Oxfordshire: Dietary and social implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 779-790.
30. Richards MP. 2000. Human consumption of plant foods in the British Neolithic; direct evidence from bone stable isotopes. In Plants in Neolithic Britain and Beyond, Fairbairn A (ed.). Oxbow Monograph: Oxford; 123-135.
31. Richards MP, Hedges REM. 1999a. How chemical analysis of human bones can tell us the diets of people who lived in the past (and other contributions). In Flavours of their Times, Food and Drink in Minoan and Mycenaean Times, Tzedakis Y, Martlew H (eds). Greek Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Antiquities, Kapon Publishers: Athens; 210-214; 216-217; 222-223; 226-227; 230-231; 246-247.
32. Richards MP, Hedges REM. 1999b. Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine foods used by Late Mesolithic humans at sites along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 717-722.
33. Richards MP, Hedges REM. In press. Stable isotope results from the sites of Gerani, Armenoi and Mycenae. In Archaeology Meets Science: Biomolecular and Site Investigations in Bronze Age Greece, Martlew H, Tzedakis Y, Jones M (eds). Oxbow Books: Oxford.
34. Richards MP, Molleson TI, Vogel JC, Hedges REM. 1998. Stable isotope analysis reveals variations in human diet at the Poundbury Camp Cemetery site. Journal of Archaeological Science 25: 1247-1252.
35. Richards MP, Mays S, Fuller B. 2002. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of bone and teeth reflect weaning at the Mediaeval Wharram Percy Site, Yorkshire, U.K. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 199: 205-210.
36. Richards MP, Vika E. In press. Stable isotope results from new sites in the Peleponnese: Sykia, Kalamaki, and Spaliareka. In Archaeology Meets Science: Biomolecular and Site Investigations in Bronze Age Greece, Martlew H, Tzedakis Y, Jones M (eds). Oxbow Books: Oxford.
37. Schoeninger M, DeNiro M, Tauber H 1983. Stable nitrogen isotope ratios of bone collagen reflect marine and terrestrial components of prehistoric human diet. Science 220: 1381-1383.
38. Schurr MR. 1998. Using stable nitrogen isotopes to study weaning behavior in past populations. World Archaeology 30: 327-342.
39. Sealy J. 2001. Body tissue chemistry and palaeodiet. In Handbook of Archaeological Sciences, Brothwell DR, Pollard AM (eds). John Wiley and Sons: Chichester; 269-279.
40. Shahar S. 1990. Childhood in the Middle Ages. Routledge Press: London.
41. 13C evidence for dietary habits of prehistoric man in Denmark. Nature 292: 332-333.
42. Teall JL. 1959. The grain supply of the Byzantine Empire. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 13: 87-140.
43. Ubelaker DH. 1989. Human Skeletal Remains. Taraxacum Press: Washington, DC.
44. Ubelaker DH, Katzenberg MA, Doyon LG. 1995. Status and diet in precontact highland Ecuador. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 97: 403-411.
45. White CD, Healy PF, Schwarcz HP. 1993. Intensive agriculture, social status and Maya diet at Pacbitum, Belize. Journal of Anthropological Research 49: 347-375.
46. Wright LE, Schwarcz HP. 1998. Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in human tooth enamel: identifying breast-feeding in prehistory. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 106: 1-18.
47. Wright LE, Schwarcz HP. 1999. Correspondence between stable carbon, oxygen and nitrogen isotopes in human tooth enamel and dentine: infant diets at Kaminaljuyu. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 1159-1170.