Depositing skeletal remains in Czech and Moravian ossuaries and associated climatic variations

Abstract

Abstract Samples of the bones of 47 individuals from 46 Czech and Moravian ossuaries were dated by the 14C method and analyzed for the collagen isotopic composition of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N). Most of the data for the ages of the remains corresponded to the cooler and damper periods described over the past 1000 years. Of the studied samples, the greatest number of remains corresponded to the Spörer (1400–1570), Dalton (1790–1830) and Wolf minima (1280–1350). One sample studied falls within the Maunder minimum (1645–1715). It can be assumed that these minima are connected with a reduced production of food and fodder, that may have initiated famines, epidemics and armed conflicts. Individual climatic minima showed positive correlations between δ13C and δ15N values, indicating that the individuals studied consumed complementary plant or animal diets to different degrees. The elevated δ15N values in our studied samples compared to the skeletal compositions of the population of the La Tène period (380 – 150 BC) and Germanic inhabitants in the territory of Bohemia (5th–6th centuries AD) and Great Moravia (9th–early 10th centuries AD) might reflect the effect of greater consumption of animal proteins or the proteins of omnivorous animals and fish, which compensated for the lack of plant foodstuffs during the colder periods. The isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen of the bone collagen for the Spörer and Dalton minima differs from the Wolf minimum. The younger minima show higher δ15N values for a given δ13C value.