Food Equality

Multiproxy Biomolecular Dietary Analysis Shows Unstratified Foodways Among Protohistoric E Baltic Communities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7476500
AutoresEster Oras (0000-0002-7212-629X, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, autor de correspondencia), Mari Tõrv (0000-0001-9473-2568, University of Tartu), Eve Rannamäe (0000-0003-1186-5512, University of Tartu), Kristiina Johanson (0000-0001-5947-4727, University of Tartu), Agnes Unt (0009-0003-6945-131X, University of Tartu), Shidong Chen (0000-0002-3495-2443, University of Tartu), Almira De Villa (0009-0003-6454-6758, University of Tartu), Holar Sepp (0000-0001-6185-0402, University of Tartu), Annaliisa Männik (University of Tartu), Sven Isaksson (0000-0002-7076-6381, Stockholm University)
Año2026
Volumen33
Número3
Fecha de publicación2026-02-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Archaeological Method and Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1072-5369 • E-ISSN: 1573-7764
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10816-026-09765-5
OpenAlexW7131265270
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas107

Biomolecular archaeology has significantly advanced our understanding of ancient foodways. However, the inevitable methodological biases of those novel methods might give deviating, even contradictory results. This paper highlights the major challenges of, but also potential solutions for, combining and comparing multiproxy dietary data. A rich dataset covering human skeletal remains, pottery, and zooarchaeological records from habitation and burial contexts from the Late Iron Age (650–1300 CE, LIA) Pada archaeological complex, NE Estonia, was subject to stable isotope, organic residue, and microfossil analysis, further complemented by local zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical records. All those dietary records were combined and compared through statistical modelling approaches to (a) exemplify the limitations and biases of different analytical approaches and (b) build a more cohesive and nuanced understanding of local foodways and their social variations. Our results show that LIA Eastern Baltic communities relied heavily on terrestrial, particularly plant based C3 diets with relatively low proportions of animal-based foods, although animal products were preferred in burial ritual context. Interestingly, no dietary variations were detected across different age and sex categories, proving equal access to main food sources for all community members in Pada. The latter contradicts with previously reported datasets from the same region and emphasises the utmost importance of multilevel dietary analysis not only in terms of dietary proxies, but also for different consumption contexts

Archaeological record · Consumption (sociology · Correspondence analysis · Foodways · Historical ecology · Statistical analysis · Zooarchaeology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Paleopathology and ancient diseases