New perspectives on nutritional stress—first carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of pig remains from historic starvation experiments

Dados Bibliográficos

ID24148129
AutoresFelix Sadebeck (University of Exeter), Stuart Black (0000-0003-1396-4821, University of Reading), Renate Schafberg (0000-0003-4156-5414, Central Natural Science Collections (ZNS), Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg), Juliette Waterman (0009-0009-4326-6099, University of Reading)
Ano2026
Volume5
Data de publicação2026-09-21
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoFrontiers in Environmental Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2813-432X • E-ISSN: 2813-432X
EditoraFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fearc.2026.1892726
OpenAlexW7213873970
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas39

This exploratory study presents the first isotopic data obtained from skeletal remains of pigs that are known to have suffered severe nutritional stress, compared to a control group of pigs from the same litters. A pilot investigation of pig remains from 20th century feeding experiments is conducted. The small dataset ( n = 10) shows that potential isotopic signals of starvation are obscured by the different dietary compositions of both test groups. This makes it unlikely that bulk stable isotope analysis of archaeological faunal remains can be used to identify nutritional stress in a setting of unknown diet and starvation status.. Fattened individuals had, compared to their starved siblings, δ 1 5N values ranging from −0.73‰ to +0.16‰ (mean: −0.36‰), and δ 13 C values ranging from −0.24‰ to +0.03‰ (mean: −0.12‰). Differences between two pig breeds are observed, indicating that breed could be a currently overlooked factor for interpreting variation in archaeological intra-species isotopic values.

Breed · Isotope analysis · Isotopes of nitrogen · Stable isotope ratio · Starvation · δ13C · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies