Abstract
For medieval and post-medieval Denmark and northern Germany, trace elements can potentially contribute to our understanding of diet, migration, social status, exposure to urban settings, and disease treatment. Copper, of particular interest as a marker of access to everyday metal items, can be used to clarify socioeconomic distinctions between and within communities. Postmortem alteration of bone (diagenesis), however, must be ruled out before the elements can be used to characterize life in the past. Femoral cortical bone samples of ca. 40 mg were thoroughly decontaminated, and the concentrations of Al, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, As, Sr, Ba, and Pb were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentrations of these elements were quantified in bone samples from 553 skeletons from 9 rural and urban cemeteries, and 34 soil samples obtained near three burials. Copper, the primary element of interest in this work, is generally absent from the femoral cortical bone of rural people, although it occurs in high concentrations in the skeletons of the inhabitants of towns. The Cu in medieval to post-medieval bones likely originated from everyday objects, notably kitchen utensils. A rural to urban distinction in Cu concentrations, found repeatedly at two sites, likely resulted from differential access to much-desired, although still utilitarian, household items. An uneven distribution of metal objects used in domestic contexts, demonstrated through bone chemistry, was greater between rural and urban communities than it was within urban centres, at least among the socioeconomic positions sampled in this study.
Highlights
For several decades it has been recognized that the chemical composition of human skeletal remains can contribute much to an understanding of past societies, especially with regard to dietary composition, migration, social position, and medical practices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Diagenesis indicators—Fe, Mn, Al, As Before inferences are drawn about past conditions from archaeological bones, it must be established that the element(s) of interest is indicative of what took place during the lives of the sampled individuals rather than what happened after they had died and were buried
Variation in bone Cu concentrations highlights the central role of skeletons in developing more nuanced views of life during the medieval to early modern periods in northern Europe
Summary
For several decades it has been recognized that the chemical composition of human skeletal remains can contribute much to an understanding of past societies, especially with regard to dietary composition, migration, social position, and medical practices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. During the medieval to early modern period, Cu exposure, its concentration in the skeleton, usually would have been related to an individual’s access to everyday metal objects. Items such as kitchen utensils made from Cu or its alloys were irregularly distributed among and within European communities because access to trade networks and markets was uneven, and distinctions in social status had a great influence on the kinds of goods people could afford. Because the last confounds interpretations of archaeological skeletons, it is fortunate that Cu concentrations in bones from medieval to early modern Danish cemeteries are largely free of diagenetic effects as long as suitable precautions are taken when sampling thick cortical bone [24]
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