Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn

Muldner, G.; Montgomery, J.; Cook, G.; Ellam, R.; Gledhill, A.; Lowe, C.

Abstract

Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery.

Citation

Muldner, G., Montgomery, J., Cook, G., Ellam, R., Gledhill, A., & Lowe, C. (2009). Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn. Antiquity, 83(322), 1119-1133. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00099403

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Jul 13, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 3, 2011
• Journal: Antiquity
• Print ISSN: 0003-598X
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-1744
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 83
• Issue: 322
• Pages: 1119-1133
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00099403
• Keywords: Britain, Medieval, Bishops, Clergy, Stable isotopes, Diet, Mobility, Social rank, Strontium Isotopes, Oxygen Isotopes, British-isles, Fresh-waters, Colonization, England, Carbon, UK.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1529939