| Abstract: |
Trace element and stable isotope analyses were carried out on archaeological human bone samples as well as animal bone specimens from the Early Mediaeval graveyard at Weingarten (Baden-Wu¨rttemberg, southwest Germany). The purpose of the study is twofold. First, a dietary reconstruction is presented aiming at both the overall nutritional pattern and intra-populational dietary diVerences, which become evident through cluster analysis. The existence of such differences is connected with, and explained by, social variation within the population as indicated by characteristic grave goods. In both the adult and the non-adult subsample access to Ca-rich food, and most probably animal-derived products is congruent with an affliation to higher social ranks. Second, variables that can help evaluate the preservation of organic and mineral bone phases, such as whole bone yield of C and N, collagen yield and yield of C and N from collagen, histological preservation and Ca/P ratio were compared with respect to their possible influence on differential nutritional patterns. No clear correspondence of any of these variables with results from the palaeodietary reconstruction, i.e., no diagenetic bias was found. This is interpreted in favour of the detection of dietary groups by cluster analysis and their variation with social standing within the community of Weingarten.
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