Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn

Müldner, G. H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4513-9263, Montgomery, J., Cook, G., Ellam, R., Gledhill, A. and Lowe, C. (2009) Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn. Antiquity, 83 (322). pp. 1119-1133. ISSN 0003-598X

Abstract/Summary

Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery.