Food traditions and colonial interactions in the ancient Mediterranean: Stable isotope evidence from the Greek Sicilian colony Himera

Abstract

During the 8-7th centuries BCE, Greeks began establishing colonies throughout the Mediterranean region. Founded in 648 BCE, the Greek colony Himera was the meeting place for Greeks of multiple cultural backgrounds, indigenous Sicilians, and Phoenicians, and was closely connected to the broader Mediterranean world through trade. We explore evidence for diversity and cultural hybridity at Himera from the perspective of its food traditions using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of 90 humans, and fauna associated with the burials.Results indicate diets based on C3 plants, supporting historical evidence that cereals provided most daily calories, with other plants eaten as supplemental “relishes.” Terrestrial animal protein was consumed in variable, but mostly low amounts, and there is no clear isotopic evidence for fish consumption. There are no differences in diet based on burial style, body position, burial “richness,” or age group, but some evidence for differences in diets of males and females, particularly during young adulthood. The fact that diets vary independently of several potentially prominent markers of status or ethnicity supports models of cultural hybridity in Greek colonization, wherein elements of different cultures mingled and recombined in new ways specific to the colony, rather than simple admixture or assimilation.