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Isotopic Anthropology Of Rural German Medieval Diet: Intra- And Inter-Population Variability, Karyn C. Olsen, Christine D. White, Fred J. Longstaffe, Frank J. Rühli, Christina Warinner, Domingo S. Salazar-Garcia

Earth Sciences Publications

This study investigates the diet of an 11th century CE parish community located in northwestern Germany. We assessed the isotopic compositions of human (n = 24) and faunal (n = 17) bone collagen (δ¹³C_col, δ¹⁵N_col) and human structural carbonate (δ¹³C_sc) using skeletal material recovered from the Dalheim cemetery. Traditional interpretation of the isotopic data indicates that Dalheim residents likely relied on a C₃ plant-based diet and consumed some terrestrial animal products without evidence of marine resource input in the diet. Bivariate and multivariate models used as an additional …