Diet in transition. Stable Isotope Analysis of Multi-Faith Populations in Medieval Sicily

This thesis explores the impact of changing political power on agriculture, animal husbandry and human diet in medieval Sicily between the 5th-14th centuries CE, utilising multiple isotope techniques. This time period spans the transitions between Byzantine to Islamic to Norman/Swabian rule in Sicily, and encompasses the Islamic Green Revolution in the Mediterranean, associate with changes in agriculture and the introduction of new crops. Bulk carbon (ẟ13C) and nitrogen (ẟ15N) isotopic analysis of plant remains (n=48) and human (n=228) and animal (n= 198) bone was undertaken from twenty sites across the island representing both urban and rural contexts and humans buried following bot Islamic and non-Islamic funerary practice. Bone carbonate (ẟ13C) was further analysed for selected human samples (n=51) to provide greater dietary resolution.
Results from plants and animals did not indicate a distinctive change with Islamic political rule, that could be interpreted as absence of effects in terms of the Islamic Green Revolution. However, two cattle from Mazara possess high δ13C values, consistent with consumption of C4 plants, potentially sugar cane, a crop introduced into Sicily during Islamic rule.
There is also a shift towards higher ẟ15N values in chickens from the same site between the Islamic and the Norman/Swabian phases, indicating a more intensive husbandry, perhaps related to egg production, during the later phase.
Humans consumed a diet based on C3 crops and C3-fed terrestrial animals, though some individuals show slightly higher δ13C values. No differences based on burial rites (Islamic versus non-Islamic) were detected. Sex-based differences were detected at urban sites in Palermo, but not more broadly The presence of outliers, particularly in the δ15N values may indicate the presence of migrants and different dietary regimes at the individual level. The δ15N values of single amnio acids (glutamic acid and phenylaniline) identified the presence of a marine component in the diet of some individuals, that was not detected in bulk stable isotope data.