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Diet in transitory society: isotopic analysis of medieval population of Central Europe (ninth–eleventh century AD, Czech Republic)

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Abstract

Dietary behavior in the context of the formation of state structure, Christianization, and significant urbanization was studied, using the Great Moravian Empire (ninth–tenth century AD, Czech Republic) as a representative example. We also analyzed the impact of the disruption of social structure at the beginning of the tenth century and subsequent recovery of society during the eleventh century. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured in 189 adults (both sexes) and 74 animals representing different socioeconomic contexts (power centers/hinterlands) and chronology (Great Moravian/Late Hillfort period). Statistically significant differences in animal protein consumption were observed between centers and hinterlands. For centers, significant relationship was found between nitrogen isotopic values and socioeconomic status in males but not for females. Diachronic diet changes were observed, with the eleventh century diet characterized by higher millet consumption in both sexes and lower consumption of animal protein in males. These results confirm that Great Moravia represented a highly stratified society socioeconomically. Social status appears to determine the consumption of animal protein much more in males than in females. The diet of females also proved to be more uniform in the diachronic frame. The diachronic change in dietary behavior suggests that through the apparent recovery in the eleventh century, Moravian society did not reach its original level of welfare at least in terms of the quality of diet.

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Notes

  1. Beavers and bears were excluded due to their specific ecology, which resulted in distinct isotopic values.

  2. As faunal data, the mean values of the main consumed domesticated species from the same time period (cattle, sheep/goat, pig) were used.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following institutions for financial support of our research: Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (Grant numbers DKRVO 2015/19 and 2016/18, National Museum 00023272), Grant Agency of Charles University (Grant number GAUK 642413), and Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Grant number GAČR 14-22823S). We thank International Science Editing for the English language editing. We appreciate the insightful reviewer comments on a first version of this manuscript. Also many thanks are due to Lenka Kovačiková for species determination of animal bones and Renáta Přichystalová and Petr Dresler for providing such excellent skeletal material and all sorts of invaluable comments and advice. And finally, we would like to thank Guy André for his assistance during lab work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, National Museum, Václavské náměstí 68, 11579, Praha 1, Czech Republic

    Sylva Kaupová & Petr Velemínský

  2. Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 12844, Praha 2, Czech Republic

    Sylva Kaupová, Vladimír Sládek & Jaroslav Brůžek

  3. Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, MCC, LAMPEA UMR 7269, 13094, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Sylva Kaupová & Estelle Herrscher

  4. Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Arne Nováka 1, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiří Macháček

  5. Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Science, Čechyňská 19, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Lumír Poláček

Authors
  1. Sylva Kaupová
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  2. Petr Velemínský
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  3. Estelle Herrscher
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  4. Vladimír Sládek
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  7. Jaroslav Brůžek
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Correspondence to Sylva Kaupová.

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Kaupová, S., Velemínský, P., Herrscher, E. et al. Diet in transitory society: isotopic analysis of medieval population of Central Europe (ninth–eleventh century AD, Czech Republic). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 923–942 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0427-8

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