Reconstructing Mediterranean Diets: the Contribution of Bone Chemistry

Robert H. Tykot, University of South Florida & John E. Robb, University of Southampton

You are what you eat. The composition of skeletal remains directly reflects diet, and certain components may be identified. The carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of terrestrial plant groups and marine flora and fauna do not overlap, and a pronounced trophic level effect exists in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. These isotopic differences are passed through the food chain to herbivorous and omnivorous consumers, and provide a powerful tool for reconstructing dietary patterns of past populations.

In the Mediterranean, applications include estimating the importance of freshwater and marine foods to otherwise terrestrial plant and animal diets, and the significance of millet, introduced from Africa during the Iron Age. Besides geographic and chronological patterning, systematic dietary variation based on gender or status may be revealed. Despite the potential of this technique to address important questions about prehistoric subsistence, it has been scarcely applied in the Mediterranean.

We present new data from the isotopic analysis of bone collagen and bone apatite in human skeletal remains from a dozen Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, and Iron Age sites in Italy. These data are integrated with the few other available bone chemistry studies, and in combination with zooarchaeological and paleobotanical evidence used to reconstruct dietary patterns in the prehistoric Mediterranean. We specifically discuss the importance of fishing, dietary shifts between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (domesticated plants and animals introduced), and the intensification of pastoralism (dairy products). Finally, the potential of bone chemistry studies to address other problems in this region will be examined.