Dietary and Mobility Reconstruction Using Stable Isotope Analyses for Mycenaean Greece: The Cases of Portes and Mageiras

The project aims at publishing a monograph presenting the results of research conducted during the PhD entailed »Dietary and mobility reconstruction using stable isotope analyses for Mycenaean Greece: the cases of Portes and Mageiras« (graded with honours at the Faculty of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Vienna), in order to make the research available to broader audiences.

The research sought to contribute to the wider debate on Late Bronze Age diet and mobility combining archaeological data and archaeometric studies on skeletal materials using carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stable isotope analyses and radiogenic strontium (Sr) analysis.

In the last two decades, numerous scholars carried out stable isotope analyses to reconstruct dietary and mobility patterns at several Mycenaean sites. However, the discussions of analytical results remained restricted to the measurements themselves and were rarely related to specific assemblages of grave goods and discussed in context with these. To move beyond this obstacle, the project focused on an archaeometric re-evaluation and archaeological contextualization of already published biomolecular data from numerous Mycenaean sites with the double purpose to provide a compendium for a comprehensive interpretation of data and a starting point for future bimolecular research in Mycenaean Greece.

The publication will also include primary biomolecular results obtained through the analysis of individuals reflecting specific targets of gender, age, and social position from well-dated archaeological contexts at Portes and Magerias, two Mycenaean cemeteries located in the northwestern Peloponnese. They offer the possibility of conducting diachronic and social studies due to their long continuity of use and the variety of funerary contexts.

This approach leads to an examination of isotopic results at different levels: exploring diet and mobility related to single individuals, recognizing similarities and differences at various social and cultural levels over time and in the context of the local society, and, finally, comparing individuals from several communities in order to reconstruct general models of diet and mobility against the background of the Mycenaean history.