Reconstructing the childhood diet of the individuals from the Middle Late Bronze Age Bezdanjača Cave, Croatia (ca. 1430 1290 BCE) using stable C and N isotope analysis of dentin collagen

Authors

  • Valentina Martinoia Simon Fraser University, Department of Archaeology – Archaeology Isotope Lab, Canada & Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Department of History and Cultures, Faculty of Archaeology, Italy
  • Stefano Benazzi Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Department of Cultural Heritage, Italy & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Evolution, Germany
  • Mario Carić Institute for Anthropological Research, Centre for Applied Bioanthropology, Croatia
  • Siniša Radović Institute for Quaternary Palaeontology and Geology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Croatia

Keywords:

stable isotope analysis, dentin collagen, childhood diet, Croatia, Bronze Age, millet

Abstract

This paper investigates the childhood diet of 16 individuals from the Middle Late Bronze Age (1430 1290 BCE) Bezdanjača Cave (Lika region, Croatia) using stable isotope analysis of dentin collagen from permanent first molars. Results from the analysis reveal that the individuals from Bezdanjača consumed notable quantities of C4 plants during their childhood. The most common C4 plant is millet, whose spread throughout Southern Europe was recently dated to the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, which agrees with the results obtained in this research. Comparisons between the data collected for the individuals from Bezdanjača and other Middle and Late Bronze Age sites in Croatia suggest that only the individuals from the site of Veliki Vital (Middle Bronze Age, inland Croatia) exhibit similar isotopic values to those from Bezdanjača. Human isotopic values from coastal sites, however, reveal that during the Middle and Late Bronze Age people from the coast had diet that still predominantly contained C3 plant-based foods, which appears to suggest that the dispersion of this crop in Croatia during the Bronze Age followed an east-west trajectory, appearing earlier (Middle and Late Bronze Age) in inland settlements such as Veliki Vital and Bezdanjača and only later (Late Bronze Age and mostly Iron Age) in coastal sites.

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2021-12-20 — Updated on 2021-12-20

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Vol. 1 No. 1 (2021): Journal of Bioanthropology

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Research paper

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