by Chris Fowler
FIG. 19.4. Cattle (solid symbols) and human (open symbols) δ13C and δ15N results for selected earlier Neolithic sites in southern Britain (averages ±2 SE)
(data from Hamilton and Hedges 2011; Hedges et al. 2007; 2008; Richards 2008).
SEX- AND AGE-BASED DIFFERENCES IN DIET
The practice of communal burial in monuments across much of north-west Europe, leading to fragmentary and commingled remains, presents difficulties for the investigation of age- and gender-related isotopic variability. Hence, much more data are available for central Europe, especially for the LBK, where the normative mortuary practice of individual interment greatly facilitates analysis. Many sites show no significant sex-based differences in either δ13C or δ15N values (Bickle et al. 2010; Dürrwächter et al. 2006; Hedges et al. 2013; Oelze et al. 2011). This is paralleled by results from elsewhere in Neolithic Europe, though these are generally based on small sample sizes (Le Bras-Goude et al. 2009; Lillie and Richards 2000; Richards 2008). However, a number of sites do show significant differences in δ15N, with males in all cases exhibiting the higher values (Table 19.1). This tendency is also seen in sites where the difference is not statistically significant. Some studies have suggested the existence of physiological differences in δ15N between the sexes, relating to pregnancy (Fuller et al. 2004), whilst others have found no evidence for this effect in the long-term average represented by measurements on bone collagen (Nitsch et al. 2010). It seems more likely that the difference is indeed dietary, with males in general consuming slightly more animal-based protein. This receives some support in the tendency for LBK females to have slightly higher caries prevalence, possibly reflecting greater carbohydrate consumption (Hedges et al. 2013, 371). By contrast, only the LBK site of Ensisheim in Alsace, France, shows a significant different in δ13C, with males having very slightly elevated values compared to females (Hedges et al. 2013). The source of this difference is not clear (the site being too far from the sea to reflect the consumption of marine protein).
Table 19.1 Average δ13C and δ15N values on adult male and female human bone collagen from selected European Neolithic sites. NS = not significant.
The Pitted Ware site of Västerbjers, introduced above, provides a rare opportunity to explore the life history of sex-based dietary differences. No differences were observed in δ13C values for nine females and nine males, though slightly higher δ15N values for males approach the 0.05 level of statistical significance (Eriksson 2004, 147). Interestingly, no comparable difference is seen in δ15N dentine measurements on molar teeth from the same individuals, indicating that any distinction, tentative as it is, only appeared with adulthood.
Age-based differences are more commonly seen, with infants exhibiting elevated δ15N values due to the nursing effect (Schurr 1998). Regional and chronological variation in weaning practices has important implications for fertility, and hence for population growth (Bocquet-Appel 2002; Bocquet-Appel 2012), but too few studies on European Neolithic material have been undertaken at sufficient resolution to discuss this meaningfully.
CONCLUSIONS
Foodways refer to more than simply ‘diet’. How people obtained their food, managed crops, and kept animals and what wild foods they gathered or hunted, whilst not determining, have strong implications for daily and seasonal routines, how people moved around and perceived their landscape, the sizes and longevity of communities (and hence the intensity of social interaction), and myriad other aspects of their lives. Was transhumance practised, and if so by which subset/s of the community, and how did this affect social relations (cf. Bentley et al. 2003; Whittle 1997)? How often were domestic animals consumed, and how common was milking? Was cereal cultivation extensive or intensive? Were plots long- or short-lived, and how did this affect people’s sense of place (cf. Bogaard 2004)? Much of this potential is only beginning to be realized.
The main impact of dietary stable isotope studies in European prehistory has undoubtedly been in demonstrating a remarkable and widespread—though not universal—shift away from marine resources from the beginning of the Neolithic. The exceptions are also interesting, with eastern Sweden for instance providing insights into the very different economic adaptations of two contemporary groups, and strongly supporting their identification as distinct cultures with differing lifeways. The emphasis on coastal situations is largely biased by the method’s efficacy in distinguishing marine and terrestrial sources of protein. Dealing with inland situations is far more difficult, though a few areas offer the opportunity to compare Mesolithic and Neolithic diets, particularly the Iron Gates and the Dnieper Rapids, but these areas are unusual in terms of their ecological settings. New studies from the Netherlands have also been useful in demonstrating the degree of variability between Neolithic communities, highlighting the possibility of specialized wetland adaptations.
Less attention has been paid to isotopic shifts within the Neolithic, though in most situations detecting these will be more challenging (cf. Schulting et al. 2010), unless they involve, as in parts of Scandinavia, coastal groups with differing commitments to farming. Of equal interest to community-level variability is within-group variation, whether based on gender, age, activity, or status distinctions. Few studies have yet addressed these issues, but their potential is clear, provided that samples of sufficient size are available. At the same time, whilst powerful, isotopic studies are clearly limited in many ways. It is thus important to compare stable isotope results with palaeopathological analysis (such as dental caries rates), and with palaeobotantical, zooarchaeological, and artefactual studies to obtain a fuller picture of Neolithic subsistence and social routines.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Many thanks to Gunilla Eriksson for discussions concerning isotopic analysis from Västerbjers.
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