This paper is intended as a contribution to the understanding of Late Iron Age food consumption p... more This paper is intended as a contribution to the understanding of Late Iron Age food consumption patterns and dietary preferences along the lower course of the River Daugava. The multidisciplinary study analysed the ceramic vessels from the 11th-13th century Rauši settlement and cemetery. We used lipid residue analysis employing GCMS (gas chromatographymass spectrometry), GCCIRMS (gaschromatographycombustionisotope ratio mass spectrometry) and bulk EAIRMS (elemental analyserisotope ratio mass spectrometry) of foodcrusts for identifying vessel contents. The results are compared and assessed in the context of food refuse finds at the site, and the carbon and nitrogen isotopic baseline of River Daugava. Other evidence of dietary practices reported in previous research and historical sources is also integrated in the discussion. The results point to the Liv burial pottery being taken directly from the household as a secondary use. The pottery analyses and bone refuse indicate that the people of Rauši mostly based their diet on fish, beef and milk. Pork, however, seems to have gone through alternative cooking practices like drying, curing or fermenting. Surprisingly none of the analysed pots had been used for extensive processing plant matter. Cultivated crops seem to have been used as a supplement to the protein rich diet.
Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; N300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence fromgraves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. Elsewhere, we have proposed a method to correct the calibrated radiocarbon (14C) dates of prehistoric burials in the Lake Burtnieks region for dietary freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE/MRE) (Meadows et al. 2015). Here, we use this method to correct the dates of 40 individuals (including 3 from the nearby 4th millennium shell-midden site, Riņņukalns) for whom we now have both 14C and stable isotope data, and test whether there is any evidence that human diets changed over time, rather than simply varying between contemporaneous individuals. Three interesting transitions can be discerned: a shift away fromhigh-trophic-level foods in the earlier 6th millenniumcal BC, a diversification of diets in the late 5thmillennium, with both more terrestrial and more coastal foods consumed, and a narrowing of diets in the mid-4th millennium, to concentrate on freshwater resources.
This paper is intended as a contribution to the understanding of Late Iron Age food consumption p... more This paper is intended as a contribution to the understanding of Late Iron Age food consumption patterns and dietary preferences along the lower course of the River Daugava. The multidisciplinary study analysed the ceramic vessels from the 11th-13th century Rauši settlement and cemetery. We used lipid residue analysis employing GCMS (gas chromatographymass spectrometry), GCCIRMS (gaschromatographycombustionisotope ratio mass spectrometry) and bulk EAIRMS (elemental analyserisotope ratio mass spectrometry) of foodcrusts for identifying vessel contents. The results are compared and assessed in the context of food refuse finds at the site, and the carbon and nitrogen isotopic baseline of River Daugava. Other evidence of dietary practices reported in previous research and historical sources is also integrated in the discussion. The results point to the Liv burial pottery being taken directly from the household as a secondary use. The pottery analyses and bone refuse indicate that the people of Rauši mostly based their diet on fish, beef and milk. Pork, however, seems to have gone through alternative cooking practices like drying, curing or fermenting. Surprisingly none of the analysed pots had been used for extensive processing plant matter. Cultivated crops seem to have been used as a supplement to the protein rich diet.
Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; N300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence fromgraves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. Elsewhere, we have proposed a method to correct the calibrated radiocarbon (14C) dates of prehistoric burials in the Lake Burtnieks region for dietary freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE/MRE) (Meadows et al. 2015). Here, we use this method to correct the dates of 40 individuals (including 3 from the nearby 4th millennium shell-midden site, Riņņukalns) for whom we now have both 14C and stable isotope data, and test whether there is any evidence that human diets changed over time, rather than simply varying between contemporaneous individuals. Three interesting transitions can be discerned: a shift away fromhigh-trophic-level foods in the earlier 6th millenniumcal BC, a diversification of diets in the late 5thmillennium, with both more terrestrial and more coastal foods consumed, and a narrowing of diets in the mid-4th millennium, to concentrate on freshwater resources.
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Papers by Dardega Legzdina
Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; N300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence fromgraves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. Elsewhere, we have proposed a method to correct the calibrated radiocarbon (14C) dates of prehistoric burials in the Lake Burtnieks region for dietary freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE/MRE) (Meadows et al. 2015). Here, we use this method to correct the dates of 40 individuals (including 3 from the nearby 4th millennium shell-midden site, Riņņukalns) for whom we now have both 14C and stable isotope data, and test whether there is any evidence that human diets changed over time, rather than simply varying between contemporaneous individuals. Three interesting transitions can be discerned: a shift away fromhigh-trophic-level foods in the earlier 6th millenniumcal BC, a diversification of diets in the late 5thmillennium, with both more terrestrial and more coastal foods consumed, and a narrowing of diets in the mid-4th millennium, to concentrate on freshwater resources.
Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; N300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence fromgraves and nearby settlement layers show that throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources for subsistence, with a particular emphasis on fishing. Dietary stable isotopes (δ15N and δ13C) from human remains show significant dietary variation within the Zvejnieki population, in terms of access to and dependence on freshwater and marine species (Eriksson 2006); we provide new stable isotope data for another 13 individuals. Elsewhere, we have proposed a method to correct the calibrated radiocarbon (14C) dates of prehistoric burials in the Lake Burtnieks region for dietary freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE/MRE) (Meadows et al. 2015). Here, we use this method to correct the dates of 40 individuals (including 3 from the nearby 4th millennium shell-midden site, Riņņukalns) for whom we now have both 14C and stable isotope data, and test whether there is any evidence that human diets changed over time, rather than simply varying between contemporaneous individuals. Three interesting transitions can be discerned: a shift away fromhigh-trophic-level foods in the earlier 6th millenniumcal BC, a diversification of diets in the late 5thmillennium, with both more terrestrial and more coastal foods consumed, and a narrowing of diets in the mid-4th millennium, to concentrate on freshwater resources.