DIET IN THE 1st—2ndCENTURIES ALONG THE NORTHERN BORDER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (A RECONSTRUCTION ON THE BASIS OF AN ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS FOUND IN SKELETAL REMAINS)

• Published in: Anthropologie (Brno) 1988-01, Vol.26 (1), p.39-54
• Main Authors: SMRČKA, VÁCLAV, JAMBOR, JAROSLAV, SALAŠ, MILAN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Children; Diet; Femur; Graves; Lead; ORIGINALARBEITEN ORIGINAL PAPERS TRAVAUX ORIGINAUX ОРИГИНАЛЬНЫЕ СТАТЬИ; Petrous bone; Skeleton; Strontium; Zinc
• ISSN: 0323-1119

We reconstructed the diet of the people buried in the burial site of the Gerulata II military-civilian station on the Limes Romanus on the Danube River and of the people buried in two nearby Germanic burial sites in Abrahám and in Sládkovičovo. All skeletal sets were dated to the 1st-2nd centuries A.D. 15 chemical elements were analysed and the Zn, Sr and Pb content of the skeletal materials has become the basis for the reconstruction. The population of the Sládkovičovo site used a diet based on sources with a high Zn content, probably in the form of meat and milk, while in Abrahám foodstuffs with a relatively high strontium content predominated, i.e. diet of prevailingly vegetable origin. Sr-sources used in Gerulata II were more similar to the Sládkovičovo than to those in Abrahám. Lead content above the clinical standard of ugPb/g of dry bone weight was found in the skeleton of a child from Abrahám, and in that of an adult female and of a child in Gerulata II. In Gerulata II it has been established that the concentration of Zn, Sr and Pb in the proximal parts of the femur in the age groups up to 20 years was age-related. In the 0—2 year and 10—15 year age brackets the concentration was rising, while in the 2—10 year and 15—20 year groups the concentration of the followed elements was falling.