Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth\u2013fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes

Michelle M Alexander,Andrew R Millard,Alejandra Gutiérrez,Christopher M Gerrard,Michael P Richards

doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00810-x

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen. The diet and economy of the medieval city of Valencia (Spain) are examined over a 1000-year period during successive periods of Visigothic, Muslim and Christian rule. Bulk stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) was carried out on 67 humans and 47 animals sampled from several archaeological sites dating between the fifth and fifteenth centuries AD. Terrestrial C3 resources dominated the diet in all periods. However, an increase in consumption of C4 plants (e.g. millet, sorghum) and/or marine resources is detected among individuals dating to the Islamic period. Differences in the isotopic values of humans and animals between the three periods indicate a significant dietary diversity during the Islamic phases (eleventh to thirteenth century), compared with the earlier Visigothic phase (fifth–seventh century) and the later Christian phase (fourteenth and fifteenth century). Observed diachronic changes in isotopic results provide evidence for a shift in diet and subsistence, particularly during the Muslim and later Christian periods. This is linked with change in population and economic focus. Dietary diversity among Muslim individuals is hypothesised to indicate the polyculture that was reflected in varied Islamic agricultural practices and the presence of potential migrants from elsewhere in the Islamic world.

Highlights

This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen
We explore a period of roughly 1000 years from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries AD through the analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes in collagen from human and animal bone: these samples are taken from multiple sites across the medieval city
The application of isotopic methodologies to medieval populations is growing in Spain, with many concentrating on Islamic populations (e.g. Salazar-García et al 2014, 2016; Pickard et al 2017; Guede et al 2017), status (Jiménez-Brobeil et al 2016), the Christian North (e.g. Sirignano et al 2014) or the interplay of faith and diet between contemporaneous populations of Christians and Muslims under later Christian rule (Alexander et al 2015)

Summary

Introduction

This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen. The present research explores the dietary impact of the major religious, socio-political, economic and population transformations that occurred over 1000 years in the medieval city of Valencia at the level of an individual. Both human and animal remains were analysed to examine aspects of day-to-day subsistence, agriculture and animal husbandry under Visigothic, Islamic and subsequent Christian control in eastern Spain. We explore a period of roughly 1000 years from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries AD through the analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes in collagen from human and animal bone: these samples are taken from multiple sites across the medieval city. Others have explored diachronic changes in diet in Spain, for example following the Islamic conquest in the Balearic Islands (Fuller et al 2010), this is the first time any bioarchaeological analysis of historic diet has investigated such an extended chronology for any major Spanish city and in particular the transition from Islamic to Christian rule

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