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: Leïa Mion, Tatiana André, Anne Mailloux, Myriam Sternberg, Arturo Morales Muniz, Eufrasia Rosello-Izquierdo, Laura Llorente Rodríguez, Estelle Herrscher
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2022
• Subjects: Paleodiet; Stable isotope; Medieval; Marine resources; Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics; R858-859.7; Science (General); Q1-390; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108016; https://doaj.org/article/440b273b92c4457c8d0161a3b63a8fa9

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.