Dietary reconstruction in Migration Period Central Germany: a carbon and nitrogen isotope study
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Dietary reconstruction in Migration Period Central Germany: a carbon and nitrogen isotope study Corina Knipper & Daniel Peters & Christian Meyer & Anne-France Maurer & Arnold Muhl & Bernd R. Schöne & Kurt W. Alt
Received: 10 July 2012 / Accepted: 25 September 2012 / Published online: 10 October 2012 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Abstract This study presents bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the Migration Period cemeteries (fifth/sixth century AD) of Obermöllern and Rathewitz in Central Germany. The human average δ13C ratios of −19.8± 0.3 ‰ and δ15N ratios of 9.6±0.9 ‰ (n043) reflect a mixed diet in a temperate C3-based ecosystem without significant difference between the two sites. The average offset between human and faunal δ13C and δ15N values indicates a significant contribution of plant food to the human diet that has different isotope ratios from the forage of the animals. It furthermore suggests the influence of land management on the δ15N values. One adult male from Obermöllern stands out due to his elevated nitrogen isotope ratio, body height, grave goods, and burial position. The collagen isotope data of this study are comparable with data from other central European sites and confirm rather stable communities with moderate variation in the environmental conditions of arable land. C. Knipper (*) : C. Meyer : K. W. Alt Institute of Anthropology, University of Mainz, Colonel-Kleinmann-Weg 2, 55099 Mainz, Germany e-mail: [email protected] D. Peters Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University of Berlin, Altensteinstraße 15, 14195 Berlin, Germany A.-F. Maurer : B. R. Schöne Earth System Science Research Center, Department of Applied and Analytical Paleontology, Institute of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 21, 55128 Mainz, Germany A. Muhl State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology/State Museum of Prehistory of Saxony-Anhalt, Richard-Wagner-Str. 9, 06114 Halle (Saale), Germany
Keywords Central Germany . Cemetery . Diet . Stable isotopes . Carbon . Nitrogen
Introduction The Migration Period (375/376–568 AD) was an eventful historical episode between Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Sporadic written sources provide glimpses of the ethnogenesis and movement of Germanic tribes (Pohl 2005, 2008), and archaeological research has documented numerous cemeteries with remarkably richly furnished graves that indicate farreaching interregional contacts. The first mention of the gens (people) of the Thuringians occurs in written sources of the late fourth century AD. The core territory of this multiethnic group is Central Germany from the Thuringian Basin to the Harz Mountains (Springer 2005; Theune 2005). After about 454 AD, when they were freed from Hunnic sovereignty, the Thuringians quickly evolved into one of the mightiest Germanic kingdoms outside the borders of the former Roman Empire. With their far-reaching regime and alliances, they became the most powerful factor east of the Rhine against the expanding Franconi
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