FOOD FOR THOUGHT: RE-ASSESSING MESOLITHIC DIETS IN THE IRON GATES (original) (raw)
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Food for thought: re-assessing Mesolithic diets in the Iron Gates [2015]
Stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in human bone collagen are used routinely to aid in the reconstruction of ancient diets. Isotopic analysis of human remains from sites in the Iron Gates section of the Lower Danube Valley has led to conflicting interpretations of Mesolithic diets in this key region of southeast Europe. One view (Bonsall et al. 1997, 2004) is that diets were based mainly on riverine resources throughout the Mesolithic. A competing hypothesis (Nehlich et al. 2010) argues that Mesolithic diets were more varied with at least one Early Mesolithic site showing an emphasis on terrestrial resources, and riverine resources only becoming dominant in the Later Mesolithic. The present article revisits this issue, discussing the stable isotope data in relation to archaeozoological and radiocarbon evidence.
This paper discusses an aquatic reservoir effect present in Mesolithic human bone samples from the Iron Gates section of the River Danube. Its magnitude has been calculated from a comparison of the 14C ages of human bones and terrestrial mammal bones from Schela Cladovei, equivalent to 545±70 years for a 100% aquatic diet. From this, using the δ15N value of human bone collagen to estimate the proportion of aquatic food in diet, a correction factor can be applied to the human bone 14C ages. Reservoir correction makes the resultant 14C age less precise but more accurate. The reservoir effect is derived from the inclusion of aquatic resources from the River Danube in the diets of the Mesolithic inhabitants. On the basis that the Black Sea became marine around 7400 cal BC, the possibility that part of the reservoir effect derives from anadromous fish species cannot be discounted. Human remains are abundant in the Iron Gates sites and therefore potentially important for construction of archaeological chronologies. Our ability to correct for the aquatic reservoir affect has important implications for establishing accurate chronologies, especially at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, which was marked by a significant change in diet and subsistence.
A previous radiocarbon dating and stable isotope study of directly associated ungulate and human bone samples from Late Mesolithic burials at Schela Cladovei in Romania established that there is a freshwater reservoir effect of approximately 500 yr in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube River valley in southeast Europe. Using the δ15N values as an indicator of the percentage of freshwater protein in the human diet, the 14C data for 24 skeletons from the site of Lepenski Vir were corrected for this reservoir effect. The results of the paired 14C and stable isotope measurements provide evidence of substantial dietary change over the period from about 9000 BP to about 300 BP. The data from the Early Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic are consistent with a 2-component dietary system, where the linear plot of isotopic values reflects mixing between the 2 end-members to differing degrees. Typically, the individuals of Mesolithic age have much heavier δ15N signals and slightly heavier δ13C, while individuals of Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic age have lighter δ15N and δ13C values. Contrary to our earlier suggestion, there is no evidence of a substantial population that had a transitional diet midway between those that were characteristic of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, several individuals with “Final Mesolithic” 14C ages show δ15N and δ13C values that are similar to the Neolithic dietary pattern. Provisionally, these are interpreted either as incomers who originated in early farming communities outside the Iron Gates region or as indigenous individuals representing the earliest Neolithic of the Iron Gates. The results from Roman and Medieval age burials show a deviation from the linear function, suggesting the presence of a new major dietary component containing isotopically heavier carbon. This is interpreted as a consequence of the introduction of millet into the human food chain.
2018
This paper presents new results of stable isotope analysis made on human and animal bones from Mesolithic–Neolithic sites (9500–5200 cal BC) in the Central Balkans. It reconstructs dietary practices in the Mesolithic and documents the development of new subsistence strategies and regional differences during the process of Neolithisation. We achieved these insights into dietary changes by analysing bone collagen δ13C (n = 75), δ15N (n = 75) and δ34S (n = 96) and comparing stable isotope data of Mesolithic–Neolithic communities from the Danube Gorges with the data of the first farmers who lived outside of the Gorges in the Central Balkans. The Bayesian model was employed to evaluate the relative importance of different animal proteins in human diet. Results bring a new overview and highlight important chronological and regional differences. They suggest that Late Mesolithic humans included more anadromous and potamodromous fish in their diet, which is consistent with archaeozoological...
Mesolithic and Neolithic in the Iron Gates: a palaeodietary perspective [1997]
This paper is a study of diet and subsistence among Mesolithic and Early Neolithic populations in the Iron Gates section of the Danube Valley, with emphasis on the sites of Lepenski Vir and Vlasac in Serbia and Schela Cladovei in Romania. The first part of the paper reviews the evidence of animal and plant residues and human skeletal indicators; the second presents new data from stable isotopic analyses of human bone supported by AMS 14C dates. Isotopic and dental evidence suggest that Mesolithic people prior to 7600 BP had high protein diets in which the bulk of the protein was derived from riverine food sources. Significant differences are evident between the isotopic signals of Mesolithic males and females buried at Vlasac and Lepenski Vir, indicating differences in overall diet. These differences are most easily explained in terms of movement of individuals between groups, linked to the practice of local group exogamy. A shift in dietary pattern occurred at Lepenski Vir between ca 7600 and 7300 BP. The bone chemistry of individuals post-dating 7300 BP reflects the intake of significantly higher proportions of terrestrial foods. This change may reflect the introduction of stock-raising and/or cultivation in the Iron Gates. If so, then the transition from Late Mesolithic to Neolithic at Lepenski Vir was not characterised by a wholesale shift in subsistence from foraging to farming; the earliest Neolithic inhabitants of the site continued to obtain a significant proportion of their dietary protein from riverine resources. The wider implications of the AMS dates and stable isotopic data are also considered.