Sociopolitical Change and Its Effect on the Biology of a Medieval Polish Population through Isotopic Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Poland" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Jagiellonian Period (1386–1572) in Poland underwent a shift toward a feudal sociopolitical and economic structure leading to an increase in social stratification and unequal distribution of power, opportunity, and resources (e.g., food). The medieval site of Gać (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries) provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into the lives of the people in Poland during a time with little historic or archaeological data for non-elites. The proximity of Gać to nearby centers, and the potential for involvement in complex economic exchange networks, make the site an ideal place to examine the complex interplay between biology and culture. Through a biocultural lens, this project examines how a non-elite medieval Polish population biologically responded during periods of significant sociopolitical change using molecular and skeletal analysis of human skeletal remains, correlated with historical documentation of sociopolitical events. Preliminary data investigates how serfdom and Christian fasting of terrestrial animals for marine/freshwater source consumption impacted diet. This study presents analyses of stable isotopes of strontium and oxygen to distinguish between local and nonlocal individuals and carbon and nitrogen to assess diet on directly dated skeletons. It is hypothesized that diet will differ between migrants and locals and reflect fish consumption.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Life and Death in Medieval Poland   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36776.0