Foamy, Fermented and Fractionated: Does Beer Consumption Create Confusion for Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Humans?
Author(s): Janet Montgomery; Charlie Taverner; Darren Gröcke; Alice Rose; Flavin Susan M.
Year: 2023
Summary
This is an abstract from the session entitled "FoodCult: Food, Culture and Identity in Ireland, c.1550-1650", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Bioarchaeologists exploit the geographic and climatic variation of oxygen isotopes in rainfall, and their subsequent deposition in the mammalian skeleton via ingested water, as a tool to explore residential mobility and migration. The method rests on the assumption that in most places and through much of the past drinking water was procured close to where it fell as rainfall. However, humans can easily raise the oxygen isotopes of drinking water if it is heated and if evaporated drinks such as teas, soups and beer, constitute a significant part of the diet this may sever the link between a person and their place of residence. This paper presents results obtained from an historically accurate experimentally brewed beer from a 16th century recipe from Dublin Castle (50/50 oat and barley) to investigate what impact drinking this beer rather than freshwater would have had on the oxygen isotope ratios of the Castle’s inhabitants.
Cite this Record
Foamy, Fermented and Fractionated: Does Beer Consumption Create Confusion for Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Humans?. Janet Montgomery, Charlie Taverner, Darren Gröcke, Alice Rose, Flavin Susan M.. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Lisbon, Portugal. 2023 ( tDAR id: 476081)
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