Anatomy and Neuroscience - Theses

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Start date: 2020 × End date: 2022 × Type: PhD thesis × Subject: 87sr/86sr ×

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    Tracing Diet and Mobility of Past Human Populations in Greater Mtskheta, Georgia
    Langowski, Natalie Ann ( 2021)
    The region of Greater Mtskheta (Republic of Georgia) lies in the Southern Caucasus and presents a near continuous record of human occupation throughout the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age (LBA-EIA, 1500-500 BC), Hellenistic Period (400-1 BC) and Roman-Late Antique Period (RLA; AD 1-700). Greater Mtskheta became increasingly urbanised, densely populated and hosted an increasingly complex society during these time periods. Contemporary written sources provide little insight into the lifestyles and social organisation maintained by Mtskheta’s inhabitants; researchers rely heavily on the trace remains of Mtskheta settlements and cemeteries to reconstruct how the inhabitants lived and what resources they consumed. Archaeological investigations reveal that by the 1st century AD, the resident society was multi-cultural, socially stratified and maintained far-reaching trade networks with the Greeks, Romans, Parthians, and Sassanid Persians. Following the 4th century AD a series of cultural changes emerge in Greater Mtskheta cemeteries including a shift in burial customs, the appearance of people with intentionally modified crania and new ‘Eurasian’ styles of grave goods. These changes suggest a novel cultural influence arrived in Mtskheta at this time, which has been tentatively attributed to contact with Eurasian nomadic-pastoralists from the steppe of southern Russia. Stable Isotope analysis of archaeological human and faunal remains can provide insight into the diet composition and mobility of people from ancient times. This research examines carbon, nitrogen and strontium isotope ratios (d13C, d15N, and 87Sr/86Sr) of humans excavated from Greater Mtskheta cemeteries remains dating between 1500 BC-AD 700. Diet was compared between time periods, sites, demographic groups (age-at-death, sex) and cultural groups (burial types, modified/unmodified skulls) to illustrate how dietary access or preferences differed over time and between these groups. Further, analyses were used to examine the role migration played in the onset of cultural changes after the 4th century. d13C and d15N results show Greater Mtskheta residents consumed a mixed C3 and C4 diet in the LBA-EIA, which is consistent with a trend in similar studies of human populations in Inner Asia and the South Caucasus during this time. The human diet in Mtskheta transitioned to a C3-dominated diet by the RLA Period, a trend which was also displayed by 87Sr/86Sr populations in the Kislovodsk basin (North Caucasus). LBA-EIA diets differed between men and women, possibly indicating greater animal product consumption among males of this period; while diets became isotopically homogeneous between sites and demographic groups in the RLA period, at a time when social stratification and complexity in Mtskheta was at its peak. The 87Sr/86Sr results demonstrate some individuals with intentionally modified skulls immigrated to Mtskheta after the 4th century, and these individuals may have originated from the vicinity of the North Caucasus or Alazani Valley. This study demonstrates the Greater Mtskheta human diet changed significantly between the LBA-EIA and the RLA with increasing social complexity, and indicates the Greater Mtskheta inhabitants maintained cultural connections with the surrounding regions throughout these time periods, apparently mirroring regional isotopic trends in diet, and evidently accommodating migrants after the 4th century AD.