Contribution to Mediterranean medieval dietary studies: Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data of marine and catadromous fish from Provence (9th–14th CE)

• Published in: Data in Brief
• Main Authors: Mion, Leïa, André, Tatiana, Mailloux, Anne, Sternberg, Myriam, Muniz, Arturo Morales, Rosello-Izquierdo, Eufrasia, Rodríguez, Laura Llorente, Herrscher, Estelle
• Other Authors: Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique (LAMPEA), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC), Laboratoire d'Archéologie Médiévale et Moderne en Méditerranée (LA3M), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre Camille Jullian - Histoire et archéologie de la Méditerranée et de l'Afrique du Nord de la protohistoire à la fin de l'Antiquité (CCJ), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM), Universiteit Leiden Leiden, Aix-Marseille Université - A*MIDEX, programme français d'Investissements d'Avenir - Institut d'Archéologie Méditerranéenne ARKAIA - Projet AMORCE, AMX-19-IET-003-projet AMORCE 2020 Icht'IsoMed2
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Paleodiet; Stable isotope; Medieval; Marine resources; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; [SHS.ENVIR]Humanities and Social Sciences/Environmental studies; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03600355; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108016

International audience Whilst marine resources are one of the pillars of the Mediterranean diet, their mode of acquisition and subsequent consumption by medieval populations in southern France are still not well known. Throughout Europe, bioarchaeological techniques, however, are beginning to reveal hitherto unknown aspects of these practices both dating to the medieval period as well as other periods of history and prehistory. This study involved the stable isotope analysis of five marine and catadromous taxa from three medieval sites in Provence, France: "rue Frédéric Mistral" at Fos-sur-Mer, "le Château" at Hyères and "Couvent des Dominicaines - Parking/Collège Mignet" at Aix-en-Provence. In total, 127 specimens, including Anguilla anguilla, Dicentrarchus labrax, Sparus aurata, Diplodus sargus and Mugilidae were subjected to carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis. The study provides a crucial and unprecedented point of reference of the carbon and nitrogen isotopic variability of one of the main dietary resources in the Mediterranean world, fish.