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Food for Thought: Re-Assessing Mesolithic Diets in the Iron Gates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Clive Bonsall ,
Gordon Cook ,
Catriona Pickard ,
Kathleen McSweeney ,
Kerry Sayle ,
László Bartosiewicz ,
Ivana Radovanović ,
Thomas Higham ,
Andrei Soficaru  and
Adina Boroneanţ
Clive Bonsall*
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Gordon Cook
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, East Kilbride, United Kingdom
Catriona Pickard
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Kathleen McSweeney
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Kerry Sayle
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, East Kilbride, United Kingdom
László Bartosiewicz
Affiliation:
Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory, University of Stockholm, Sweden
Ivana Radovanović
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, USA
Thomas Higham
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Andrei Soficaru
Affiliation:
‘Francisc I. Rainer’ Anthropological Research Center, Romanian Academy, Bucureşti, Romania
Adina Boroneanţ
Affiliation:
‘Vasile Pârvan’ Institute of Archaeology, Romanian Academy, Bucureşti, Romania
*
2 Corresponding author. Email: C.Bonsall@ed.ac.uk.
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Abstract

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.

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Articles
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Radiocarbon , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , 2015 , pp. 689 - 699
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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References

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