Diachronic changes in diet in medieval Berlin: Comparison of dietary isotopes from pre- and post-Black Death adults

Highlights

• Paleodietary isotopes were analyzed from medieval Petriplatz, Germany.

• Results indicate increase in consumption of animal protein following the Black Death.

• Males were eating more animal protein than females before the Black Death

• Lower ratio of survivors to animals and/or freshwater fish consumption may explain results

Abstract

The precise time, the original location, and the processes involved in the creation of Germany’s capital Berlin are still unknown due to a lack of surviving documents. As such, archaeology and bioarchaeology play a critical role in understanding the people who lived in medieval Berlin. In this paper, we describe an isotope analysis aimed at identifying what the early inhabitants of Berlin were eating and at inferring dietary variation among skeletons sexed as male versus female, and among those interred before and after the Yersinia pestis pandemic known as the Black Death (1347–1352 CE). Carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios from 66 skeletons from the medieval cemetery site of Petriplatz indicate that males consumed proportionately more protein than females before the Black Death. However, a significant increase in δ¹⁵N values in skeletons associated with post-Black Death contexts suggests an increased consumption of animal protein for both males and females. This study is the first dietary isotopic analysis to be conducted on the skeletons at Petriplatz and is only the second paleodietary isotopic reconstruction of the High Middle Ages in Germany. Consequently, this study provides key insights into the cultural responses to the ecology of the Black Death by the people of Berlin within the broader context of medieval Germany and medieval Europe.

Introduction

The Middle Ages in Europe comprised a complex time period spanning roughly 1000 years. Modern scholars commonly divide it into three periods: the Early Middle Ages (c. 500–1000 CE), the Central or High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1300 CE), and the Late Middle Ages (c. 1300–1500 CE). During most of this millennium, the climate of Europe was temperate, with slightly warmer temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period (900 to 1300 CE) (Easterbrook, 2011), and therefore able to support both agriculture and animal husbandry.

The Black Death refers to the second recorded pandemic caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which tore through Europe from 1347 to 1352 CE and drastically altered European demography, societies, and economies. Historians estimate that between 25 and 45 million people, or roughly 33–60% of Europe’s population, died during the Black Death (Benedictow, 2004, Daileader, 2007, Slavicek, 2008) from a combination of primary (Y. pestis infection) and secondary mortality (from exposure, starvation, dehydration, and/or opportunistic respiratory infections). Farm fields and livestock were left unattended, and there was an increased need for certain jobs such as health workers and gravediggers (Slavicek, 2008). As farms were abandoned, prices dropped, which concerned many of the contemporary historians and chroniclers such as Henry Knighton, the late 14th century canon at St. Mary of the Meadows in Leicester, England (Rickert et al., 1948).

The Black Death resulted in altered diversity and availability of dietary resources across the European continent. For example, secondary historical sources suggest that in Germany, less wheat and oats were planted in the decades after the Black Death due to the lower animal and human populations, while more vetches and barley were planted (Gottfried, 2010). Reconstructing diet among populations prior to and following the Black Death may therefore provide significant insights into how Europe’s survivors negotiated their subsistence in the aftermath of a cataclysmic five-year pandemic.

This study employs a dietary isotope analysis of bone collagen and carbonate apatite among human remains interred at the site of Petriplatz in Berlin, Germany. The analysis centers on the following research questions: 1) What were the residents of Berlin who lived prior to the Black Death eating? 2) Did the Black Death affect dietary resource use differently for men and women in Berlin? We hypothesize that men and women in medieval Berlin were consuming similar foods, with a reliance on cereal and grains prior to the Black Death, and that afterwards, they were eating proportionately more animal protein. The goals of this project were to investigate whether diet can be considered a culturally-mediated economic response to plague for people in Berlin, and to place the city within a broader context of medieval Germany and medieval Europe. This study produces the first dietary isotopic analysis of skeletons at Petriplatz and is one of only two paleodietary isotopic reconstructions dating to the High Middle Ages in Germany.