The Archaic Period Diet: Preliminary Isotope Results for Adult Individuals from the Phaleron Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

While the Archaic (700–480 BCE) was a transformative and tumultuous period in ancient Greece, there is a considerable lack of paleodietary studies for this time. The recent excavation (2012–2016) of ~1,500 individuals from the Archaic period Phaleron cemetery in Athens provides a means of illuminating the dietary habits and social organization of Archaic Greek individuals. For this presentation, we use stable isotope analysis to infer the temporal dietary patterns of ancient Greece and the dietary habits and social organization of 60 adult individuals from the Phaleron cemetery. We will address two research questions: (1) Do dietary signatures in ancient Greece significantly change over time? and (2) Are there significant differences in the dietary signatures of the Phaleron individuals according to grave type, skeletal sex, and age categories? The bioapatite carbon data and the results of statistical analyses suggest that there were no significant differences in dietary signatures between the Archaic period Phaleron individuals and Classical period individuals. Results regarding grave type, skeletal sex, and age categories are forthcoming. The lack of viable collagen data from this study limits our interpretations and demonstrates the importance of investigating alternative preparation protocols for stable isotope analysis of poorly preserved bone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40309.0