Abstract
During the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Spanish ships sailed around the globe connecting Spain to its colonies. While documentary records offer rich details concerning life on board ship, archaeological information is essential to generating a full picture of the past. The cemetery at Old St Bernard’s Hospital, Gibraltar, provides an opportunity to study the skeletal remains of sailors. Following previous osteological research, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium isotope analyses were undertaken on thirty-three of these individuals. The results show that the, largely male, individuals had various different diets during life and came from several different places. Diets were largely based on C3 food chains; some individuals consumed C3 foods with low δ13C values; others consumed some marine foods, and a few individuals had a high trophic level diet, through the consumption of either freshwater resources or a high proportion of animal protein. The individuals spent their childhoods in several different places, although these homelands do not correlate simply with dietary variation. This variety in diets and homelands is consistent with our expectations for this hospital site given its location in a post-mediaeval entrepôt. The interpretation of these results are greatly helped by the available historical information and this has broader implications for the interpretation of isotope data elsewhere where the historical context of the site and the mobility patterns of the individuals are less well known.
Highlights
During the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries Spanish ships sailed around the globe transporting cargo, such as agricultural goods and precious metals, to mainland Spain from overseas colonies and Spanish goods, such as ceramics, oil and books, in the opposite direction
A hospital was initially established at the site known as Old St Bernard’s Hospital in 1567 by Juan Mateos, a prosperous merchant (Benady 1994) primarily to treat mariners (Hernández del Portillo 2008 [1610–22]); by 1591, it was run by the Order of (San) Juan de Dios
The individuals were born in a range of different places, these homelands do not correlate with their various diets
Summary
During the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries Spanish ships sailed around the globe transporting cargo, such as agricultural goods and precious metals, to mainland Spain from overseas colonies and Spanish goods, such as ceramics, oil and books, in the opposite direction. Vital to this trade were the sailors themselves. A hospital was initially established at the site known as Old St Bernard’s Hospital in 1567 by Juan Mateos, a prosperous merchant (Benady 1994) primarily to treat mariners (Hernández del Portillo 2008 [1610–22]); by 1591, it was run by the Order of (San) Juan de Dios It operated until the Anglo-Dutch conquest of 1704
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