Victims and survivors: Stable isotopes used to identify migrants from the Great Irish Famine to 19th century London

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volumn 150, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 87-98

  Beaumont, Julia ^a   Geber, Jonny ^b   Powers, Natasha ^c   Wilson, Andrew ^a   Lee Thorp, Julia ^d   Montgomery, Janet ^e  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST   (United Kingdom)

^c MUSEUM OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY   (United Kingdom)

^d UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^e DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

bone collagen; bone turnover; carbon; diet; hair analysis; nitrogen; workhouse

Indexed keywords

CARBON; COLLAGEN; NITROGEN;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; BONE LENGTH; BONE TURNOVER; CHILD; DIET; FEMALE; FISH; FOOD INTAKE; HUMAN; HUMAN TISSUE; HUNGER; INFANT; MAIZE; MALE; MEAT; MIGRATION; POTATO; PRESCHOOL CHILD; REVIEW; SCHOOL CHILD; SKELETON; SURVIVOR; UNITED KINGDOM; VICTIM;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; BONE AND BONES; CARBON ISOTOPES; CEMETERIES; CHILD; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; COLLAGEN; DATA INTERPRETATION, STATISTICAL; FEMALE; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HUMAN MIGRATION; HUMANS; IRELAND; KERATINS, HAIR-SPECIFIC; LONDON; MALE; MIDDLE AGED; NITROGEN ISOTOPES; STARVATION; SURVIVORS;

EID: 84871601686     PISSN: 00029483     EISSN: 10968644     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22179     Document Type: Review

References (71)

1. Annual Reports of the Registrar General of England. 1838-1843, London.
2. Ambrose SH,. 1993. Isotopic analysis of paleodiets: methodological and interpretive considerations. In:, Sandford MK, editor. Investigations of ancient human tissue chemical analyses in anthropology. Langhorne, PA: Gordon & Breach.
3. Ambrose SH, Butler BH, Hanson DB, Hunter-Anderson RL, Krueger HW,. 1997. Stable isotopic analysis of human diet in the Marianas Archipelago, Western Pacific. Am J Phys Anthropol 104: 343-361.
4. Ambrose SH, DeNiro MJ,. 1986. Reconstruction of African human diet using bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. Nature 319: 321-324.
5. Archer,. 2003. British 19th century Surname Atlas: Available at:www.archersoftware.co.uk.
6. Beaumont J, Gledhill A, Lee-Thorp J, Montgomery J,. 2012. Childhood diet: a closer examination of the evidence from dental tissues using stable isotope analysis of incremental human dentine. Archaeometry (early view).
7. Bell LS, Cox G, Sealy A,. 2001. Determining isotopic life history trajectories using bone density fractionation and stable isotope measurements: a new approach. Am J Phys Anthropol 116: 66-79.
8. Bell LS, Lee-Thorp J, Elkerton A,. 2009. The sinking of the Mary Rose warship: a medieval mystery solved? J Archaeol Sci 36: 166-173.
9. Bogaard A, Heaton T, Poulton P, Merbach I,. 2007. The impact of manuring on nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals: archaeological implications for reconstruction of diet and crop management practices. J Archaeol Sci 34: 335-343.
10. Britton K, Müldner G, Bell M,. 2008. Stable isotope evidence for salt-marsh grazing in the Bronze Age Severn Estuary, UK: implications for palaeodietary analysis at coastal sites. J Archaeol Science 35: 2111-2118.
11. Brown TA, Nelson DE, Vogel JS, Southon JR,. 1988. Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30: 171-177.
12. Cadwallader L,. 2009. Reconstruction of the lives of the 19th century City Bunhill cemetery population using multi-isotope analysis. Unpublished dissertation. University of Bradford.
13. Chadwick E,. 1842. Report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Great Britain. London: Poor Law Commission.
14. Chenery C, Eckardt H, Muldner G,. 2011. Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome's Northern frontier. J Archaeol Sci 38: 1525-1536.
15. Clarkson LA, Crawford EM,. 2001. Feast and famine: a history of food and nutrition in Ireland 1500-1920. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16. Cox A, Sealy A, Schrire C, Morris M,. 2001. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses of the underclass at the colonial Cape of Good Hope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. World Archaeol 33: 73-97.
17. Donnelly JS,. 2001. The Great Irish potato famine. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
18. Drummond JC, Wilbraham A,. 1939. The Englishman's food: five centuries of English diet. London: Pimlico.
19. Dupras TL, Schwarcz HP,. 2001. Strangers in a strange land: stable isotope evidence for human migration in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. J Archaeol Sci 28: 1199-120
20. Fildes V,. 1986. Breasts, bottles and babies: a history of infant feeding. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
21. Floud R, Wachter K, Gregory A,. 1990. Height, health and history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22. Fraser RA, Bogaard A, Heaton T, Charles M, Jones G, Christensen BT, Halstead P, Merbach I, Poulton PR, Sparkes D, et al. 2011. Manuring and stable nitrogen isotope ratios in cereals and pulses: towards a new archaeobotanical approach to the inference of land use and dietary practices. J Archaeol Sci 38: 2790-2804.
23. Fuller BT, Fuller JL, Sage NE, Harris DA, O'Connell TC, Hedges REM,. 2004. Nitrogen balance and d15N: why you're not what you eat during pregnancy. Rapid Comm Mass Spectrom 18: 2889-2896.
24. Geber J,. 2012a. Burying the famine dead: Kilkenny Union Workhouse. In:, Crowley J, Smyth WJ, editors. Atlas of the Great Irish Famine 1845-52. Cork: Cork University Press.
25. th century skeletal population. Am J Phys Anthropol 148: 512-524.
26. Hedges REM, Clement JG, Thomas DL, O'Connell TC,. 2007. Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. Am J Phys Anthropol 133: 808-816.
27. Hedges REM, Reynard LM,. 2007. Nitrogen isotopes and the trophic level of humans in archaeology. J Archaeol Sci 34: 1240-1251.
28. Hatch KA, Crawford MA, Kunz AW, Thomsen SR, Eggett DL, Nelson ST, Roeder BL,. 2006. An objective means of diagnosing anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa using 15N/14N and 13C/12C ratios in hair. Rapid Comm Mass Spectrom 20: 3367-3373.
29. Huelsemann F, Flenker U, Koehler K, Schaenzer W,. 2009. Effect of a controlled dietary change on carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of human hair. Rapid Comm Mass Spectrom 23: 2448-2454.
30. Hunter J,. 2000. The making of the crofting community. Edinburgh: John Donald.
31. Jay M, Fuller BT, Richards MP, Knüsel CJ, King SS,. 2008. Iron age breastfeeding practices in Britain: isotopic evidence from Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire. Am J Phys Anthropol 136: 327-337.
32. Katzenberg MA, Lovell NC,. 1999. Stable isotope variation in pathological bone. Int J Osteoarchaeol 9: 316-324.
33. Kinealy C,. 2006. This great calamity. The Irish famine 1845-52. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
34. Larsen CS,. 1990. The archaeology of Mission Santa Catalina de Guale: 2. Biocultural interpretations of a population in transition. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
35. Litton H,. 1994. The Irish Famine: an illustrated history. Dublin: Wolfhound.
36. Mayhew H,. 1985. London labour and the London poor. Selections made and introduced by Neuberg, V. London: Penguin.
37. Mekota A, Grupe G, Ufer S, Cuntz U,. 2006. Serial analysis of stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes in hair: monitoring starvation and recovery phases of patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Rapid Comm Mass Spectrom 20: 1604-1610.
38. Miles A,. In press. 'He being dead yet speaketh.' Excavations at three post-medieval burial grounds in Tower Hamlets, East London, 2004-08. London: MOLA.
39. Miles A, Powers N,. 2006. Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School, Lukin Street, London, E1: migration in post-medieval London. Post-excavation assessment and updated project design. London: MOLA.
40. Montgomery J, Evans JA, Powlesland D, Roberts CA,. 2005. Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice and status at West Heslerton. Am J Phys Anthropol 126: 123-138.
41. Müldner G, Montgomery J, Cook G, Ellam R, Gledhill A, Lowe C,. 2009. Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn. Antiquity 83: 1119-1133.
42. Müldner G, Richards MP,. 2005. Fast or feast: reconstructing diet in later medieval England by stable isotope analysis. J Archaeol Sci 32: 39-48.
43. Nitsch EK, Humphrey LT, Hedges REM,. 2010. The effect of parity status on d15N: looking for the "pregnancy effect" in 18th and 19th century London. J Archaeol Sci 37: 3191-3199.
44. Nitsch EK, Humphrey LT, Hedges REM,. 2011. Using stable isotope analysis to examine the effect of economic change on breastfeeding practices in Spitalfields, London, UK. Am J Phys Anthropol 146: 619-628.
45. O'Connell TC, Hedges REM,. 1999. Isotopic comparison of hairand bone: archaeological analyses. J Archaeol Sci 26: 661-665.
46. O'Connell TC, Hedges REM,. 2001. Isotopic comparison of hair, nail and bone: modern analyses. J Archaeol Sci 28: 1247-1255.
47. O'Neill T,. 1976. The organisation and administration of relief, 1845-52. In:, Edwards RD, Williams TD, editors. The Great Famine: studies in Irish history 1845-1852. New York: Russell and Russell.
48. O'Gráda C,. 1999. Black '47 and beyond: the Great Irish Famine in history, economy, and memory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
49. Petzke KJ, Lemke S,. 2009. Hair protein and amino acid 13C and 15N abundances take more than 4 weeks to clearly prove influences of animal protein intake in young women with a habitual daily protein consumption of more than 1 g per kg body weight. Rapid Comm Mass Spectrom 23: 2411-2420.
50. Picard L,. 2005. Victorian London. London: Orion Books.
51. Powanda MC, Beisel WR,. 2003. Metabolic effects of infection on protein and energy status. J Nutr 133: 322S-327S.
52. Powers N,. 2008. "All the Outward Tinsel Which Distinguishes Man from Man Will Have Then Vanishedâ∥"an assessment of the value of post-medieval human remains to migration studies. In:, Brickley M, and, Smith M, editors. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. Oxford: Archaeopress.
53. Roberts C, Cox M,. 2003. Health and disease in Britain: from prehistory to the present day. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Limited.
54. Richards M,. 2006. Palaeodietary reconstruction. In:, Brickley M, Buteaux S, Adams J, Cherrington R, editors. St Martin's uncovered: investigations in the churchyard of St Martin's-in-the-Bull Ring, Birmingham 2001. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
55. Schoeninger MJ, DeNiro MJ,. 1984. Nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of bone collagen from marine and terrestrial animals. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 48: 625-639.
56. Sealy J, Armstrong R, Schrire C,. 1995. Beyond lifetime averages: tracing life histories through isotopic analysis of different calcified tissues from archaeological human skeletons. Antiquity 69: 290-300.
57. Strype J,. 1720. Survey of London. Sheffield: hriOnline. Available at:http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype consulted 08.01.2012.
58. Swift R,. 2002. Irish migrants in Britain 1815-1914: a documentary history. Cork: Cork University Press.
59. Tames R,. 2003. Feeding London: a taste of history. London: Historical Publications Ltd.
60. Trickett MA,. 2006. A tale of two cities: diet, health and migration in post-medieval Coventry and Chelsea through biographical reconstruction, osteoarchaeology and isotope biogeochemistry. Durham: University of Durham.
61. Valentin J, editor. 2003. Basic anatomical and physiological data for use in radiological protection: reference values. ICRP publication 89: International Commission on Radiological Protection.
62. Van der Merwe NJ, Vogel JC,. 1978. 13C Content of human collagen as a measure of prehistoric diet in woodland North America. Nature 279: 815-816.
63. Van Klinken GJ,. 1999. Bone collagen quality indicators for palaeodietary and radiocarbon measurements. J Archaeol Sci 26: 687-695.
64. Velis CA, Wilson DC, Cheeseman CR,. 2009. 19th century London dust-yards: a case study in closed-loop resource efficiency. Waste Manage 29: 1282-1290.
65. White J,. 2007. London in the nineteenth century: "A human awful wonder of God". London: Jonathan Cape.
66. Williams LJ, White CD, Longstaffe FJ,. 2011. Improving stable isotopic interpretations made from human hair through reduction of growth cycle error. Am J Phys Anthropol 145: 125-136.
67. Wilson AS,. 2008. The hair. In:, McKinley JI, editor. The 18th century Baptist church and burial ground at West Butts Street, Poole, Dorset. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology Ltd.
68. Wilson AS, Cadwallader L,. 2010. Individuals with surviving hair. In:, Connell B, Miles A, editors. The City Bunhill Burial Ground, Golden Lane, London. London: MOLA.
69. Wilson AS, Gilbert MTP,. 2007. Hair and nail. In:, Thompson T, Black S, editors. Forensic human identification: an introduction. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
70. Woodham-Smith C,. 1964. The Great Hunger. Ireland 1845-49. London: Penguin Books.
71. Wright LE, Valdes JA, Burton JH, Price TD, Schwarcz HP,. 2010. The children of Kaminaljuyu: isotopic insight into diet and long distance interaction in Mesoamerica. J Anthropol Archaeol 29: 155-278.