Life and Death in Iron Age Wales: Results from Radiocarbon Dating, Histological, and Stable Isotope Analyses from Case Study Sites

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Iron Age in Wales is understudied compared to other regions in Britain largely due to the lack of osteological evidence. A study by Rowan Whimster in 1981 found only eight burial records in the entire country, leading to the assumption that Iron Age peoples in Wales conducted "archaeologically invisible" funerary rites, especially excarnation within hillforts. However, a recent reevaluation of Iron Age site excavations by Oliver Davis in 2017 has uncovered a larger burial corpus in Wales, offering an opportunity to assess funerary practices, mortality profiles, health, diets, and origins of the Iron Age population. This paper presents results from radiocarbon, histological, and multi-isotope analyses of two settlement sites with the largest assemblages of burial evidence: RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan and Dinorben in Conwy. Through this integrative study of isotopic and microtaphonomic analyses, the project aims to enhance our understanding of mortuary practices and provide new insights into the diets and origins of prehistoric populations in Wales, thus redressing long-held assumptions about life and death in the Iron Age.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39942.0