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Diet, society, and economy in late medieval Spain: Stable isotope evidence from Muslims and Christians from Gandía, Valencia

Alexander, MM; Gerrard, CM; Gutiérrez, A; Millard, AR

Diet, society, and economy in late medieval Spain: Stable isotope evidence from Muslims and Christians from Gandía, Valencia Thumbnail


Authors

MM Alexander



Abstract

This article investigates the diets of neighboring Christians and Muslims in late medieval Spain (here 13th–16th centuries) through the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in adult human and animal bone collagen. Twenty-four Christians and 20 Muslims are sampled from two adjacent and contemporaneous settlements in the township of Gandía on the Mediterranean coast, together with the remains of 24 animals. Statistical differences in both δ13C and δ15N reveal that the diets of the two faith communities differed, despite living side-by-side. These differences may relate to inequalities in their access to foodstuffs, particularly to C3/C4 grain and/or possibly terrestrial meat sources, though cultural preferences are also highlighted. Isotopic values for animals were also found to vary widely, both between and within species, and this provides a window into the local livestock economy.

Citation

Alexander, M., Gerrard, C., Gutiérrez, A., & Millard, A. (2015). Diet, society, and economy in late medieval Spain: Stable isotope evidence from Muslims and Christians from Gandía, Valencia. American journal of physical anthropology, 156(2), 263-273. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22647

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 15, 2014
Online Publication Date Oct 29, 2014
Publication Date Feb 1, 2015
Deposit Date Oct 30, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Print ISSN 0002-9483
Electronic ISSN 1096-8644
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 156
Issue 2
Pages 263-273
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22647
Keywords C4 plants, Islamic, Mediterranean, Collagen, Faith.

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (278 Kb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version Copyright © 2014 The Authors. American Journal of physical Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






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