Human diet in Mantua (Northern Italy)

Isotopic data on local communities dated from Copper Age to Middle Bronze Age

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22429148
AutoresFrancesca Cortése (0000-0003-0490-0033, University of Rome Tor Vergata, autor correspondente), Leonardo Lamanna (Azienda Unita' Sanitaria Locale di Parma), Cristina Longhi (University of Brescia), Luana Bontempo (0000-0001-7583-1501, Fondazione Edmund Mach), F De Angelis (0000-0002-4747-2385, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"), Mari Hirose (Azienda Ospedaliera Carlo Poma), Olga Rickards (0000-0003-2880-7466, University of Rome Tor Vergata), Mattia Rossi (University of Parma), Mario Federico Rolfo (0000-0003-2492-2387, University of Rome Tor Vergata), Paola Iacumin (0000-0001-6944-1814, University of Parma)
Ano2026
Volume18
Fascículo8
Data de publicação2026-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12520-026-02534-1
OpenAlexW7168356173
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas58

The Copper to Middle Bronze Ages are particularly significant times in Italian Protohistory, as they were marked by major dietary, social, and technological transformations. Stable isotope analysis has become a key tool in reconstructing past human diets. Although its application has expanded across the Italian Peninsula over the past decade, data for the Copper Age in northern Italy remain limited, and geographic coverage is still uneven. This study presents new isotopic evidence on 11 faunal specimens, and 101 humans from the province of Mantua (Lombardy), a region with a dense concentration of funerary contexts dating from the Copper Age to the Middle Bronze Age. The results reveal a consistent dietary pattern across the periods investigated, with protein intake derived predominantly from terrestrial animal sources and C 3 plants; no significant dietary differences were observed between sexes or age groups. The dietary continuity observed across nearly a millennium suggests that, despite broader socio-economic changes documented in the archaeological record, subsistence strategies in this region remained stable. The dietary homogeneity observed among buried individuals suggests consistent dietary practices within the funerary population. This study provides one of the first isotopic datasets from Northern Italy for the Copper Age and offers a new perspective on subsistence strategies in protohistoric Lombardy.

Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Iron Age · Isotope analysis · Middle Stone Age · Peninsula · Subsistence agriculture · Zooarchaeology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies