“Young, Scrappy, and Hungry”: Social Upheaval and Changes in Food Resource Access in Colonial and Postcolonial America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Arch Street Project: Multidisciplinary Research of a Philadelphia Cemetery" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Revolutionary War was a crucial turning point in American history, as the thirteen British colonies broke with England and established themselves as an independent nation. This research takes a biocultural approach to explore the impact of these dynamic changes at the individual scale in terms of resource access and diet. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from teeth, long bones, and rib samples were analyzed to explore diet throughout life for a subset of individuals (n=100) interred at the historic First Baptist Church of Philadelphia (FBCP) cemetery during the colonial (pre-1775 AD) and post-colonial (post-1783) periods. The data reveal variation in stable nitrogen isotope values during infancy and childhood for both adults and subadults that indicate changes in feeding practices to incorporate more diverse proteins for site subadults, as compared to the childhood diets of adults. The data also reveal dietary patterns that align with different socioeconomic statuses when compared to contemporary populations. Overall, the data suggest increased dietary heterogeneity, similarity in diet for males and females, the prevalence of C3 grains in the diet, and increased consumption of meat over time. As such, this research reveals insight into dietary stability and resilience among Revolutionary Era Americans in Philadelphia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Arch Street Project: Multidisciplinary Research of a Philadelphia Cemetery   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37959.0