engleski

Reconstructing health in early medieval Europe: an Irish example

This presentation provides an overview of a multidisciplinary population-based research project focusing on a reconstruction of health in early medieval Europe (AD 500-1100) with a special emphasis on Ireland. The presented data include a new set of radiocarbon dates as well as preliminary results of osteoarchaeological, ancient DNA and stable isotopes analyses. The studied sample involves over 400 skeletons from five rural sites (Ardsallagh 1, Augherskea, Claristown 2, Collierstown 1, and Omey Island). New radiocarbon dates were obtained for burials from three sites (Augherskea, Claristown 2 and Omey Island) thus confirming their early medieval character. An osteoarchaeological component included the study of demographic parameters and data on the frequency and distribution of various pathological features such as skeletal trauma, subadult stress indicators, and dental pathologies. The ancient DNA analysis primarily focused on molecular sexing of subadults in order to reveal possible differences in general health between males and females during infancy and early childhood. Stable isotopes analyses (carbon and nitrogen) should reveal valuable information on the diet of studied individuals, but also the age of weaning in the early medieval Irish communities. Finally, the presented data will be placed in a wider historical context by comparing them with the available early medieval written sources. During the last two decades a multidisciplinary approach, i.e. a combination of different scientific branches such as archaeology, history, physical anthropology, biochemistry, and molecular biology proved to be a very important tool in our study of human past, especially in a reconstruction of health and lifestyle of archaeological populations. Hopefully, the information obtained by this study will significantly increase our present knowledge on the everyday life of early medieval Irish, but will also contribute that this type of research becomes a standard in Irish archaeology.

Early medieval period; Ireland; bioarchaeology; aDNA; stable isotopes analyses

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