Medieval Bishops of Whithorn.', Antiquity., 83 (322)
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Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 03 August 2011 Version of attached le: Published Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Muldner, G. and Montgomery, J. and Cook, G. and Ellam, R. and Gledhill, A. and Lowe, C. (2009) 'Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn.', Antiquity., 83 (322). pp. 1119-1133. 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Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 http://dro.dur.ac.uk Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn Gundula Muldner¨ 1, Janet Montgomery2, Gordon Cook3, Rob Ellam3, Andrew Gledhill2 &ChrisLowe4 Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery. Keywords: Britain, medieval, bishops, clergy, stable isotopes, diet, mobility, social rank Method Introduction Isotope analyses of human skeletal tissue allow the assessment of diet and mobility at the level of individuals. These methods, on their own, are powerful tools for advancing our understanding of the past, but they are most valuable where the isotope data can be integrated with rich contextual evidence. Particularly interesting and potentially very fruitful, are those occasions where samples can be tested against known archaeological contexts and documentary evidence, or even applied to historically attested persons. Renewed work on the archives of the 1957-67 excavations at Whithorn Cathedral Priory, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, recently afforded an opportunity to analyse the remains of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century bishops and clerics of Whithorn Cathedral (Lowe 2009). This was a rare chance to explore the life histories of a well-defined group of people in medieval British society, to test common assumptions about their lifestyle and to contrast them with lay individuals from the same site. We present here the results of this investigation as an example of how isotope methods can be integrated with archaeological and historical evidence in order to provide a novel perspective on the study of medieval burials. 1 Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 227, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: [email protected]) 2 Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK 3 Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Rankine Avenue, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride G75 OQF, UK 4 Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd, 13 Jane Street, Edinburgh EH6 5HE, UK Received: 22 January 2009; Accepted: 14 March 2009; Revised: 3 April 2009 ANTIQUITY 83 (2009): 1119–1133 1119 Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn Whithorn Cathedral Priory and town Whithorn (Candida Casa) is situated on the Machars Peninsula in the historic county of Wigtownshire in south-west Scotland (Figure 1). According to tradition, it was founded by Ninian, first missionary among the Picts, in the early fifth century AD. Excavations have shown the presence of a possibly monastic settlement from at least the early sixth century and the Venerable Bede, writing in or before AD 731, reported the recent establishment of a Northumbrian bishopric at Whithorn (Bede HE iii,4 (Colgrave & Mynors 1979: 222-3); Hill 1997; Fraser 2002). In the eleventh and twelfth century, Whithorn expanded into one of the first urban settlements in Scotland. Until the Reformation, it was an important ecclesiastical centre, with a priory of Premonstratensian canons attached to the cathedral from c. AD 1177. Its sacred focus was the shrine of St Ninian, which attracted large numbers of pilgrims from the British Isles, Ireland and continental Europe. The Bishops of Whithorn presided over the province of Galloway in south-west Scotland which, in the medieval period, formed part of the archdiocese of York (Yeoman 1999; Oram in Lowe 2009). Burial at Whithorn Cathedral Priory A concentration of burials in the presbytery, in immediate proximity to the presumed location of the shrine of St Ninian, was revealed by excavations in the east end of the medieval cathedral under the direction of P.R. Ritchie from 1957. These burials, in the most prestigious location a medieval church afforded, were clearly of very high status. Several of the individuals were interred in stone cists, in one case a stone-built chamber, and various graves contained liturgical objects and other artefacts that identified several of the deceased as high ranking clerics (Lowe 2009; see also Gilchrist & Sloane 2005). At least three individuals were identified by name as former Bishops of Whithorn, on the basis of detailed analysis of the archaeological contexts and historical records combined with evidence from the osteological assessment and radiocarbon dating of the human remains. Others could not be matched with historical personae but are identified as priests by their accompanying artefacts. These men were presumably high ranking clerics at the cathedral chapter or the wider diocese (Lowe 2009; see Table 1). In order to investigate aspects of the lifestyle and life-history of senior clergy at one of medieval Scotland’s most prominent cathedral churches, bone and tooth samples of six of the presumed bishops and priests were submitted for isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium for the reconstruction of diet and mobility. These data were compared with a ‘control group’ of eight individuals which were selected from among other burials around the shrine, a charnel deposit, and an earlier phase open-air cemetery which was levelled in the early thirteenth century. They probably represent the remains of lay benefactors along with other individuals of unknown rank. Radiocarbon dates, obtained for all individuals in the sample, indicate that their lives covered a period of about 400 years, from the eleventh to the late fourteenth century (Lowe 2009). 1120 Gundula Muldner¨ et al. Method Figure 1. Location of Whithorn in south-west Scotland projected on an oxygen isotope map of Britain (adapted from Darling et al. 2003). 1121 Isotopes and individuals: diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn Table 1. Isotope data and collagen quality indicators for humans from Whithorn. For more detailed archaeological information and individual identifications see Lowe (2009). δ 18 OCO3 SK no. Sex Status δ 13C δ 15N %C %N C/N % Coll Tooth (VSMOW) 87Sr/86Sr Comments − 1MBishop19.4 13.2 44.2 16.2 3.2 9.6 P3 27.9 0.71180 presbytery; stone cist; crozier; ring; chalice; paten 2MPriest−19.2 12.0 43.6 16.3 3.2 7.3 P3 27.0 0.71043 presbytery; stone cist; chalice; ring − 3MBishop19.3 13.5 45.3 16.8 3.2 8.1 C1 27.6 0.71030 presbytery; stone chamber; crozier; ring − 4MPriest18.9 13.3 43.8 16.3 3.2 7.5 P4 27.8 0.71038 presbytery; chalice; paten 1122 − 5M?Priest19.3 12.3 44.0 16.3 3.2 7.8 P3 27.5 0.71037 presbytery; stone cist − 8M?Priest20.0 11.5 45.6 16.9 3.2 9.8 P3 28.3 0.70993 presbytery; stone cist; cleft palate 6FLay−19.6 11.9 44.6 16.6 3.2 6.1 – – – presbytery − 9F?Lay20.2 11.2 44.1 16.7 3.1 8.1 P3 28.9 0.70959 charnel deposit 15 n.d. ?Lay −19.4 12.0 44.1 16.5 3.2 5.6 P4 28.5 0.70992 presbytery; adolescent 17 M ?Lay − –––– – I2 28.8 0.70973 pre- c. AD 1200 cemetery − 18 M ?Lay 20.6 11.3 44.4 16.3 3.2 5.3 P4 28.5 0.71005 pre- c. AD 1200 cemetery − 19 F Lay 21.1 11.1 44.1 16.3 3.3 5.2 P3 31.3 0.70920 pre- c. AD 1200 cemetery − 23 M ?Lay 21.1 11.0 41.1 14.8 3.3 3.5 M3 28.8 0.70971 pre- c. AD 1200 cemetery 24 M ?Lay −21.0 10.5 43.9 16.2 3.2 5.8 – – – pre- c. AD 1200 cemetery Gundula Muldner¨ et al. Isotope analyses of human remains The isotopic compositions of skeletal tissues reflect those of the foods consumed by individuals over the time of tissue formation, over several decades for bone and over a period of a few years in childhood for teeth. While the isotope ratios of some elements vary mainly between different foods and are therefore useful for reconstructing diet, others are subject to change due to geographical factors and therefore offer information on whether individuals were of local or non-local origin (see Sealy 2001 and below). Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope ratios in bone collagen give an indication of the main types of dietary protein consumed.