Well supplied in life, set aside in death: A multi‐isotope study of Justinian plague victims from Saint‐Doulchard (France, 7th–8th centuries AD) - Archive ouverte HAL
Article Dans Une Revue American Journal of Biological Anthropology Année : 2024

Well supplied in life, set aside in death: A multi‐isotope study of Justinian plague victims from Saint‐Doulchard (France, 7th–8th centuries AD)

Résumé

Objectives: Justinian plague and its subsequent outbreaks were major events influencing Early Medieval Europe. One of the affected communities was the population of Saint-Doulchard in France, where plague victim burials were concentrated in a cemetery enclosure ditch. This study aimed to obtain more information about their life-histories using the tools of isotope analysis. Materials and Methods: Dietary analysis using carbon and nitrogen isotopes was conducted on 97 individuals buried at Le Pressoir in Saint-Doulchard, with 36 of those originating from the enclosure ditch. This sample set includes all individuals analyzed for plague DNA in a previous study. Mobility analysis using strontium isotope analysis supplements the dietary study, with 47 analyzed humans. The results are supported by a reference sample set of 31 animal specimens for dietary analysis and 9 for mobility analysis. Results: The dietary analysis results showed significantly different dietary behavior in individuals from the ditch burials, with better access to higher quality foods richer in animal protein. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios are similar for both studied groups and indicate a shared or similar area of origin. Discussion: The results suggest that the ditch burials contain an urban population from the nearby city of Bourges, which overall had a better diet than the rural population from Saint-Doulchard. It is implied that city's population might have been subjected to high mortality rates during the plague outbreak(s), which led to their interment in nearby rural cemeteries.
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Dates et versions

hal-04678190 , version 1 (26-08-2024)

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Zdeněk Vytlačil, Raphaël Durand, Sacha Kacki, Marion Holleville, Sylva Drtikolová Kaupová, et al.. Well supplied in life, set aside in death: A multi‐isotope study of Justinian plague victims from Saint‐Doulchard (France, 7th–8th centuries AD). American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 2024, 185, ⟨10.1002/ajpa.25002⟩. ⟨hal-04678190⟩
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