Ingvarsson-Sundstrom et al 2009 Stable isotopes analysis Asine

8/8/2019 Ingvarsson-Sundstrom et al 2009 Stable isotopes analysis Asine

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MediterraneanArchaeologyandArchaeometry,Vol.9,No.2,pp.114

Copyright2009MAAPrintedinGreece.Allrightsreserved.

STABLEISOTOPEANALYSISOFTHEMIDDLE

HELLADICPOPULATIONFROMTWOCEMETERIES

ATASINE:BARBOUNAANDTHEEASTCEMETERY

A.IngvarssonSundstrm*,1,M.P.Richards2,S.Voutsaki3

1DepartmentofArchaeologyandAncientHistory,UniversityofUppsala,Box626,SE75126

UPPSALA,Sweden

2

Department

of

Human

Evolution,

Max

Planck

Institute

for

Evolutionary

Anthropology,

DeutscherPlatz6,D04105Leipzig,Germany([email protected])

3InstituteofArchaeology,UniversityofGroningen,Poststraat6,NL9712ERGroningen,The

Netherlands([email protected])

Received:21/1/2009

Accepted:23/4/2009 Correspondingauthor:A.IngvarssonSundstrm

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Inthispaperwereporttheresultsofthestablecarbonandnitrogenisotopeanalyses

ofhumans from twoMiddleBronzeAgecemeteriesatAsine,Greece:Barbouna (n=6)

and theEastCemetery (n=13). Ingeneral, thedietarypatternof adults andjuveniles

showsaheavyrelianceonmainlyterrestrialfoods;C3plantsandavaryingamountof

animalprotein(meat,milkordairyproducts).Thehighnitrogenvaluesofsome indi

viduals from theEast cemetery indicatea substantial consumptionofanimalprotein,

although the carbon values show thatnodetectable amounts ofmarine foods, orC4

plants such asmillet hadbeen consumed.High nitrogen values aswell as the high

slaughterageofdomesticanimals,asfoundinpreviousstudiespointtowardsasignifi

cantutilizationofmilkanddairyproductsatAsine.Alowincreaseofnitrogenvaluesinsubadultsyounger thanoneyearsof age fromBarbouna compared to femalesat the

East cemetery indicates that these childrenmayhavebeen fedbreastmilkaswellas

supplementaryfoods.Therefore,despitethepoorpreservationandunevensamplesize,

theAsine isotopicdatagiveus informationondietduring theMHperiod,aswellas

variationbetweenthemembersofthecommunity.

KEYWORDS:Stableisotopeanalysis,Asine,BronzeAge,MiddleHelladic,diet,wean

ing


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A.INGVARSSONSUNDSTRMetal2

INTRODUCTION

The reconstructionofprehistoricdi

ets through stable isotope analysis of

carbonandnitrogeninhumanbonecol

lagen has become an important and

widespread part of many bioarchae

ologicalandenvironmentalstudies.The

information gained from osteological

analysesand thechemicaldataderived

from the bones have shown to be a

fruitful combination complementing

each other and contributing towards a

morecomprehensiveknowledgeofdiet,

healthandhuman culturaldiversity inpast societies. Within the area of Ae

gean prehistory a growing body of

analyseshas focussedonmaterial from

Greece (Richards and Hedges, 1999;

Tzedakis andMartlew, 1999; Papatha

nasiouetal.,2000;Triantaphyllou,2001;Papathanasiou, 2003; Bourbou& Rich

ards,2007;Lagiaetal.,2007;Petroutsaetal., 2007; Richards and Hedges, 2008;RichardsandVika,2008;Triantaphyllou

etal.,2008).Theanalysispresentedhereis part of a broader interdisciplinary

researchprogramme,theMiddleHelladicArgolidProject (onhttp://www.MHArgolid.nl)whosemain aim is to recon

struct social organization and social

change during theMiddle BronzeAge

(orMiddleHelladic[MH]period,2100

1700 BC) in the region of theArgolid,

southern Greece. The examination of

dietary variation is an important component of this project, and analyses

have already been carried out on

neighbouring Lerna (Triantaphyllou etal., 2008) andAspis (Triantaphyllou etal., in print),while this paper presentstheanalysisfromAsine.

The basic concepts behind dietary

reconstructions of past populations

havealreadybeenextensivelyreviewed

elsewhere (Sealy, 2001; Katzenberg,

2000). In short, different food sources

have characteristic stable carbon

(13C/12C, expressed as 13C values) and

nitrogen isotope ratios (15N/14N, ex

pressed as 15N values) which are

passedfromproducertoconsumerand

accumulate in thehumanbodyduring

the individuals lifetime, with some

fractionation. Therefore,measurements

of the isotopic composition of human

bone collagenwillgenerally reflect the

individuals diet, i.e.whether the pro

tein consumed came from terrestrial,marine or freshwater resources, or a

combinationthereof.

Sinceatmospheric carbon enters the

food chain primarily through the pho

tosynthesisofplantsitispossibletodif

ferentiatebetween consumptionofC3,

C4 orCAMplantswhich employsdif

ferent photosynthetic pathways

(Keegan, 1989). Most European plants

belong to the C3 group (e.g. cereals,

fruits, nuts and trees) and have quite

low carbon values whereas C4plants,

such as tropical grasses, maize, sor

ghum and millet have higher carbon

values. The CAMplants (for example

pineapple,succulentsandcacti)employ

a less commonpathway and their val

uesare roughly intermediate toC3and

C4plants(Katzenberg,2000).InEurope

whereC4plantsareuncommon,carbon

valueshaveoftenbeenusedtodifferentiatebetween terrestrialandmarinedi

ets (Schoeninger et al., 1983; RichardsandHedges,1999).For instance,apre

dominantly marine feeding pattern

would show carbon values around

12,whereas a dietbasedmainly on

terrestrialfoodswouldshowlowercar

bonandnitrogenvalues.

Nitrogen isotopes indicate the tro

phicleveloftheconsumer,i.e.whether


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STABLEISOTOPEANALYSISOFTHEMIDDLEHELLADICPOPULATION 3

animalsorplantswerethemainprotein

source.Most plants have low propor

tions of protein compared to animals

(VanKlinkenetal.,2000).Ahighnitrogenvaluewillthusindicatethatalargeamount of the individuals protein in

take came from animals, either in the

formofmeatordairyproducts.A fur

ther distinction can bemade between

plants of different 15N values: some

plantssuchaslegumestakeupnitrogen

through the atmosphere (i.e. nitrogen

fixers)which result in a low nitrogen

value,whereasnonlegumesplantstake

up nitrogen from the soil and have

higher nitrogen values (Keegan, 1989).

The noted difference between trophic

levels has alsomade nitrogen isotopes

suitable for analyses of breastfeeding

patterns: When children are breastfed

theyareonahigher trophic level than

theirmothers.Thus,theirnitrogenlevel

will be about 23 higher than their

mothers value.When other foods are

introduced their nitrogen values willgradually decrease tobecome equal to

adultvalues(Fulleretal.,2006).

THESITEOFASINE

Oneofthe importantandwellstud

iedMiddleHelladic settlements in the

Argolid is Asine, located on the coast

near the modern village of Tolo. The

SwedishexcavationsatAsinehavebeen

carried out in successive campaignssincethe1920s(seeNordquist&Hgg,

1996forareviewoftheexcavations).A

largenumberofgraveshavebeenexca

vated in connection to theMH settle

mentatAsine:within thesettlementat

Kastraki, among ruined houses on the

slope of the nearby Barbouna hill as

wellas inanunsettledareaeastof the

acropolis(EastCemetery).Hereliesthe

significanceoftheAsinemortuarydata:

they allow a comparisonbetween dif

ferentburialgrounds,usedperhapsby

different segments of the community.

Unfortunately, many of the skeletonsfromtheearliestexcavationsatKastraki

havebeenlost.

TheEastCemeterywasusedonlyfor

burials,and ithasbeen suggested ear

lier that this cemeterybelonged to the

elite groups as evidenced by the

wealthygraves found there, aswellas

theexistenceofatumulus.Itshouldbe

pointed out, however, that the differ

encesbetween theburialgroundsmay

not be as marked as previously sug

gested; the C14 data have somewhat

modified the history of the tumulus

(Milka,2007).

In the 1970sLawrenceAngel exam

ined theskeletonsfrom theEastCeme

teryandBarbouna. Inhis reportAngel

concluded that theBronzeAgepopula

tionatAsinewaslesshealthythanother

BronzeAgepopulationsinGreece(An

gel,1982).Hebelieved that inadequatenutrition and especially a lackofmeat

protein could havebeen the primarily

responsible factor for thebadhealthof

thepopulationandproposed thatbone

chemistry was needed to clarify this

question.Inalaterosteologicalanalysis

of the subadults from the1926 excava

tionofKastraki, IngvarssonSundstrm

(2008)foundanexceptionallyhighneo

natal mortality and a poor growth of

children, thus confirmingAngels gen

eral interpretation of severe health

problems at Asine. The analysis indi

cated intermittent periods ofmalnutri

tion and disease during childhood

which couldhavebeen linked to feed

ingpractices,suchasearlysupplemen

tationwithotherfoodsthanbreastmilk.

A reexamination of the skeletons

from the EastCemetery and Barbouna


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was carried out by A. Ingvarsson

SundstrmasapartoftheMiddleHel

ladicArgolidProject,whoseothermain

objectivewas to reexamineMHpopulations with modern osteological and

chemical methods (Voutsaki, 2005;

Voutsaki et al., 2004; 2005; 2006; 2007).The aim of the stable isotope analysis

was toexaminewhether theAsinediet

waspoor inanimalprotein,and ifdif

ferencesexistedbetweenthetwoceme

teriesand/orbetweensexes.Itwasalso

the intention that the stable isotopes

would clarify the question of breast

feeding customs and shed light on the

durationofbreast feedingandatwhat

ageotherfoodswereintroduced.

MATERIALANDMETHODS

A totalof38bone sampleswere se

lected from the 41 osteologically re

examinedskeletonsfromBarbounaand

theEastCemetery;14samplesfromthe

17 individuals from Barbouna, and 24

samples from the 24 individuals from

the East Cemetery. Not all skeletons

from the Barbouna cemetery couldbe

sampledbecauseof thepoorpreserva

tion of three skeletons (two neonates

andajuvenile/adult).Ribswereselected

foranalysisifpossible,butsinceskeletal

preservationwasgenerallypooratboth

cemeteries, other bones occasionally

had tobe selected as an alternative to

ribs.The age and sex of all individuals

had previously been determined

through standardosteologicalmethods

(Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994). The

skeletal samplesbelong to individuals

of both sexes and ages ranging from

newborntooldadulthood(+50yearsof

age).Collagen was extracted from the

bone samples following a modified

Longin (1971) method (Richards and

Hedges, 1999)with the addition of an

ultrafiltration step (Brown et al., 1988).Collagenextractionandsubsequentiso

tope measurements weremade at the

Department ofHumanEvolution,Max

Planck Institute for Evolutionary An

thropology, Leipzig, Germany. Of the

38 samples initially selected, only 19

samples provided enough well

preservedcollagen foranalysis (6of14

from Barbouna and 13 of 24 from the

East cemetery) (Table 1). The other 19samples either had too little collagen

preservedorproducedapoorC:Nratio.

FollowingDeNiro (1985) only samples

withaC:Nratiobetween2.9 3.6were

considered for analysis. It has been

shown that samples outside this rangecouldhavebeenaffectedbypostmortemchanges which may cause unreliable

indicationsoftheindividualsdiets.Un

fortunately, itwas impossible toexam

inepossiblechronologicaldifferencesin

diet within the Asine community be

cause of the small sample size. To de

termine the relative importance of ani

mal vs. plants, the isotope values de

rived from bone samples from herbi

vore and omnivore animals from the

nearby and contemporaneous site of

Lerna have been used as references

(Triantaphyllouetal.,2008).


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Table1:StablecarbonandnitrogenisotopevaluesforskeletonsfromEastCemeteryandBarbouna

atAsine(Neonate=01year;Child=612years;Juvenile=1218years;Adult+18years;YA=Young

Adult,1830years;PA=PrimeAdult,3040years;MA=MatureAdult,4050years,OA=Oldadult,

+50

years).

SkeletonNo. Cemetery Age Sex 13C() 15N() C:Nratio

44AS East Adult ? 20.6 9.3 3.6

45AS East MA M 19.8 8.5 3.2

47AS East Child ? 18.7 10.7 3.3

48AS East YA M 19.2 9.7 3.2

51AS East Juvenile ? 19.2 9.2 3.2

53AS East OA F 19.0 8.7 3.2

54AS East Adult M 19.1 9.3 3.2

55AS East Juvenile ? 19.1 9.8 3.2

56AS East PA F 19.1 10.3 3.2

60AS East YA M 19.1 7.9 3.3

61AS East PA F 19.8 9.6 3.2

62AS East Child ? 18.9 8.9 3.3

64AS East Adult ? 19.0 9.4 3.2

93aAS Barbouna Neonate ? 19.3 9.2 3.3

105AS Barbouna Neonate ? 18.2 10.2 3.2



112AS? Barbouna Neonate ? 18.4 10.2 3.1

89.324 Barbouna YA/PA M 19.3 8.3 3.3

RESULTSANDDISCUSSION

Thedietarypatternofadultsandju

venilesatAsineshowsaheavyreliance

onmainlyterrestrialfoods;i.e.C3plants

with a varying amount of animal pro

tein(Fig.1).Thereisnovisibleadditionof marine foods (which is surprising,

considering thatAsine is located on a

promontory); in this case higher 15N

and 13C valueswould havebeen ob

served.Thefactthatveryfewfishbones

havebeenfoundintheanimalboneas

semblage (KatrinMoberg,personal communication)seemstosupporttheresultsofthestableisotopeanalysisbutitmust

be emphasised that the sparse fish re

mainsmaywellbe an effectof the re

coverymethodsused;handcollectionof

bones (which was practised at Asine)

typically produce few fish remains

whereaswaterflotationandwatersiev

ingusually increase thenumberof fish

bonesaswellas thenumberofspecies

(Mylona,2003).Furthermore, thepossibilitythatlowamountsofmarinefoods

ofa lowtrophic levelwere indeedcon

sumed,butnotdetectedwiththemeth

ods of the present analysis should not

beexcluded(Milneretal.,2004;Hedges,2004;cf.RichardsandSchulting,2006).


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0

2

4

6

8

10

12

-22.0 -21.5 -21.0 -20.5 -20.0 -19.5 -19.0 -18.5 -18.0

13C

15N

neonate

child

juvenile

adult

Lerna sheep/goat

Lerna cattl e

Lerna pig

Lerna red deer

Fig.1:Plotofbonecollagen13Cand15NofindividualsfromAsineandanimalsfromLerna

(meansandstandarddeviations).

Also, there is no evidence that C4

plantssuchasmillet,oranimalsfedon

C4plantswerepartofthedietinAsine.

AscanbeseeninFigure1,itisneverthe

less likely that amajority of the individuals consumed large amounts of

animalprotein.Astudyofanimalbones

from terrace III atKastraki shows that

cattleandpigsplayedasignificantrole

in theAsineeconomy,whilesheepand

goatswerealsoabundant(MobergNils

son,1996).

The nitrogen isotope levels, how

ever,mustbe interpretedwith caution

since thereareother causesbesides in

gestionofanimalproteinthatmayraise

human nitrogen levels. For instance, it

hasbeenshownthathumanworkingof

the soilmaydisturb thedelicatenitro

gen cyclebetween plants and soil and

maycausesignificantlyraisedvaluesin

both(VanKlinkenetal.,2000).Inaddition, the use of animal manure raises

thesoilnitrogenlevelconsiderablyand

this could affect the human nitrogen

valuesthroughthefoodchain(Bogaard

etal.,2007;HedgesandReynard,2007).Even if these effectsmay, to some ex

tent,be checkedby analyses of plants

and animals, archaeobotanical remainsareseldomavailable.Therearealso in

dications that periodical nutritional

stresscanincreasehumannitrogen lev

els,meaning thatnotonlydietbutalso

the individuals nitrogen balance can

affectthe 15Nvalues(Fulleretal.,2005).However, it isunlikely that thiswould

show up in bone collagen, which is

formedoverlongtimeperiods.

Yet,thevaryingstableisotopelevels

atAsine areby nomeans exceptional.

On thecontrary, thestable isotopeval

uesatAsineagreewellwiththoseseen

at other Greek Bronze age sites (e.g.

Lerna,MycenaeandArmenoionCrete)

(Fig.2).ThemajorityoftheAsinepopulationarecomparabletotheindividuals

having high nitrogen values and less

negativecarbonvalues. If thecompari

son is extended to the lavishly fur


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nishedburialsfromtheMycenaeGrave

Circles, it is interesting tonote that the

Asinepopulation fits fairlywellwithin

the section of values that overlap be

tween the other Bronze Age popula

tions and the elite graves atMycenae

(Grave Circle A, n=9; Grave Circle B,

n=6;chambertombs,n=11)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

-20 -19.8 -19.6 -19.4 -19.2 -19 -18.8 -18.6 -18.4

13C

15N

Asine

Myc cht

Myc B

Myc A

Arm

Ler

Fig.2:

Stable

carbon

and

nitrogen

isotope

mean

values

from

Asine

in

comparison

to

other

Bronze

Agepopulations.Mycenae:GravecircleA(=MycA),GravecircleB(=MycB),chambertombs(=Myc

cht),Lerna(=Ler)andArmenoi(=Arm)[Crete].

Turningnow toa closer look at the

sexspecificstable isotoperesultsof the

EastCemetery (Fig. 3): Since there areonly three women represented in this

sample,and two individuals couldnot

bedeterminedastosex,anyinterpreta

tion ofdietarydifferencesbetween thesexes will necessarily be speculative.

However, thematerial at hand shows

that the femalemeannitrogenvalue is

higher than the male value, possibly

indicating that females at the East

Cemetery hadmore animal protein in

theirdietthanmen.Ontheotherhand,

thedifference isnotstatisticallysignifi

cant,anditisperhapsmorelikelythatit

is an effect of small sample size and

quite large individual variation. It is

nevertheless interesting tonoteat least

one casewhere a differentburial type

and high nitrogen value coincide: Thehighest nitrogen values of this sample

belong to the female and the juvenile

buried inoneof the twopithos(storagejar)gravesofthecemetery(Grave1971

7)(Dietz,1980): 15N=10.3and9.8

respectively.


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0

2

4

6

8

10

12

-21 -20.5 -20 -19.5 -19 -18.5

13C

15N

Female

Male

Sex

unknown

Juvenile

Female mean: 13C = -19.3 ( 0.4), 15N= 9.5 ( 0.8)

Male mean: 13C = -19.3 ( 0.3), 15N= 8.7 ( 0.7)

Adult mean: 13C = -19.4 ( 0.3), 15N= 9.1 ( 0.7)

Barbouna

Fig.3:PlotofnitrogenandcarbonisotopevaluesfromadultsandjuvenilesattheEastcemetery

(n=11)andBarbouna(n=1).Circled=individualsfrompithosgrave19717;meanswith1SD.

Unfortunately, thesamples from the

secondpithos (grave 197115), contain

ing twoadultsdidnotgiveanyresults

because the bones did not contain

enough collagen for analysis. ThemajorityofthegravesoftheEastCemetery

werecists.Whilesmallerjarswerequite

frequently used forburials of children

during the MH period, the burial of

adultsin(larger)storagejarsisnotthat

common, although parallels are found

in neighbouring Argos, as well as in

other regions of the southern Greek

mainland(Nordquist,1987;Dietz,1980).

Nordquist

has

suggested

that

the

pres

ence of this grave type for adult use

couldhavebeenaresultofmarriages

between different elite family groups

fromthemainland,whereanimmigrat

ing spouse brought his/her traditional

burial customs when moving (into

Asine)(Nordquist,2002).Ifthissugges

tion canbe accepted, it isnotunlikely

that the immigrants also brought

slightly different dietary habits (along

withburialcustoms).Furthermore,two

otherburialscanbesingledoutasspe

cial from the conspicuous grave finds:

grave 197012 inwhich a golddiadem

wasfoundandgrave19713containinga largenumberofvases,abronzedag

ger and a limestone pommel (Dietz,

1980).Theinhabitantsofthesegraves,a

manandanindividualofunknownsex

also had quite high nitrogen values

(15N = 9.3 ) possibly suggesting a

diet rich in animal protein. However,

highnitrogen levelsarenotonlyfound

among the individuals buried with

elaborate

grave

goods:

the

highest

val

ues are found in those individuals

whosegraveswereemptyoffinds.Pos

sible differences between the popula

tions of the two cemeteries (East and

Barbouna) could not be verified since

only one adult from Barbouna pro

duced any results in the stable isotope

analysis.

Asalreadymentioned,stableisotope

analysishasalsobeenused toestimate


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how long childrenwerebreastfed and

the timeof introductionof solid foods.

In exclusivelybreastfed infants the ex

pectednitrogenenrichmentisaround3 (Katzenberg et al., 1996). Whenweaningstarts,thenitrogenlevelofthe

childwillgraduallydeclinetotheadult

valueprovidedthatadultandchildeat

the same typeof food. It isnotknown

exactlyhowlongittakesfortheisotopic

signalofbreastmilk toreach thebones

of a neonate, but a recent study has

shown that this processmaybe fairly

rapid;elevatedvalueshavebeenfound

in very young children (only a few

weeks old) when compared to foetal

values(Richardsetal.,2002).

The interpretation of breastfeeding

customsinAsineisseverelyhamperedby

thesmallsamplesizeofchildren,andthe

lackofchildrenbetween15yearsofage.In this sampleall except twoolder chil

dren are younger than one year of age.

Furthermore, there areno stable isotope

results for the Barbouna females,which

impliedthattheBarbounachildrenhadto

becomparedto the3femalesoftheEast

Cemetery.Still,apreliminary interpreta

tion of thedata athand shows that the

childrens 15N values are significantly

enriched compared to the adults of the

sample,butthereisnostatisticallysignifi

cant differencebetween the female and

subadultmeans(Fig.4).

Female

mean

Adult

mean

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Age (years)

15N

>

Fig.4:NitrogenisotopevaluesofchildrenfromBarbounaandtheEastCemeteryincomparisonto

femaleandadultaveragenitrogenvalues(minimumandmaximumvaluesareindicatedforthefe

maleandadultsamples).

In fact, the childrens mean 15N

valueislowerthanexpectedforbreast

fed children, since it is only 0.5

higherthanthefemalemeanand1.1

higher than the general adult mean

(whereas the normal increase would

havebeen23).Interestingly,arecent

studyofstable isotopevalues from fin


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gernail clippings of modern children

showed that children receiving breast

milkandinfantformula(basedoncows

milk)demonstratea lowernitrogen increase (11.4 ) compared to fully

breastfed children (Fuller et al., 2006).Thisdifferencesappliedalsotothecar

bon values (0.5 instead of c. 1 iffullybreastfed).Thelowincreaseofthe

nitrogenandcarbonvaluesmirrors the

low enrichment seen among theAsine

childrenwhichareyoungerthan1year

ofage.Itisalsopossible,however,that

these isotope values reflect a combina

tionofbreastfeedingandfoetaldiets.

Whendiscussingweaningage, it is

alsorelevanttoconsiderothertypesof

evidence such as data on subadult

mortality: the osteological data from

Asine indicate a high mortality of

childrenlessthan1yearofage.Inthe

Barbouna cemetery 8 of the 17 indi

viduals were children in this age

group. It iswellknown thatearly in

troduction of other nutrients thanbreastmilk is potentially risky under

poor hygienic circumstances, since it

mayexpose thechildren topathogens

and nutritional stress (King and Uli

jaszek,1999).Thus, thesynergisticef

fect of infections and early supple

mentation is associated with high

mortality during the first year.Natu

rally, the possibility that the diet of

children dying at an early age may

have been different from that of

healthychildrenshouldnotbeforgot

ten. A stable isotope study of teeth

fromadultscouldpossiblyclarifythis

question.Whetherthelowenrichment

in the childrens nitrogen and carbon

valuesindicatesthatabreastmilkdiet

was supplemented with other nutri

ents(suchasforinstanceanimalmilk)

has to remain an open question be

causeof the limitationsof the sample

sizealreadymentioned.Itisneverthe

less very likely that dairy products

formed an important part of the dietatAsine:astudyofanimalbonesfrom

terrace III atKastraki showed a high

slaughterageof thedomesticanimals

usuallyconsistentwithautilizationof

secondaryproducts,suchasmilkand

wool(MobergNilsson,1996).

CONCLUSIONS

The stable isotope analysis of the

skeletons from Asine shows that thedietoftheAsinepopulationwassimilar

tothatofotherGreekBronzeAgepopu

lations: therewas a heavy reliance on

terrestrial foods,namelyC3plantswith

a varying amount of animal protein

frommeatanddairyproducts.Thereis

no indication that sizeable amounts of

marinefoodswereconsumed,andthere

areno signsofeitherdirector indirect

ingestion of C4 plants such as millet.

Someadultsat theEastCemeteryseem

to have had a lot of animal protein in

their diet, and in this respect they are

comparable to the individuals from the

GraveCirclesatMycenae.

A limitationof thecurrentstudy is

however themodest number of indi

viduals, the low number of sexed

adult individuals and the absence of

individualsincertainagegroups.The

questionofweaningageof theAsinechildren is thus problematic. How

ever, there are indications that some

children received early supplementa

tion, possibly in the form of animal

milk. In thiscase theymayhavebeen

exposed to harmful pathogenswhich

couldhavebeen a contributory cause

tothehighmortalityofchildrenbelow

1yearofage.


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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thestable isotopesanalysiswascarriedoutasapartof theMiddleHelladicArgolidProject, which is financed by the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research(NWO), theUniversityofGroningen.Theosteologicalanalysisof theAsineskeletons

hasbeenfundedbytwoResearchGrantsfromtheInstituteofAegeanPrehistory(2005

and 2006), TheWiener Laboratory (ASCSA) (2005) and additional subsidiesby the

Swedish Research Council (20072008), Gsta Enboms Foundation (2005) and SAU

researchfoundation(2005).WewouldliketoexpressourthankstoMrsAnnaBanaka,

Headofthe4thEphorateofPrehistoricandClassicalAntiquities,andtotheDepartment

ofConservation,MinistryofCultureforgrantingusapermittoexamineandsamplethe

humanskeletonsfromAsine.WewouldalsoliketothanktheSwedishInstituteaswell

asProf.G.Nordquist,Prof.C.G.StyreniusandProf.R.Hggforgivinguspermissionto

studyandtakesamplesfromtheAsineskeletons.WearegratefultoDr.S.Triantaphyl

louforhelpduringsamplingproceduresin theNauplionMuseum.Finally,wewouldlike toacknowledge theassistancewehavereceived from theguardsat theNauplion

Museum.

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Bogaard,A.,Heaton,T.H.E.,Poulton,P.andMerbach,I.(2007)Theimpactofmanuring

onnitrogen isotoperatios incereals:archaeological implications forre

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Documents

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