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A multi-isotope analysis of Neolithic human groups in the Yonne valley, Northern France: insights into dietary patterns and social structure

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Abstract

With the arrival of the Neolithic to Europe, new ways of life and new subsistence strategies emerged. In the Paris Basin (northern France), the appearance of some monumental funerary structures during the Middle Neolithic highlights in particular the increasing complexity of the social organisation. At the same time, several sites, such as open-air cemeteries, do not display any evidence of such arrangement. In the southeast of this area, the two primary routes of neolithisation meet. Several funerary parameters attest to the diverse influence received from other surrounding cultures. In order to assess potential differences in diet, and therefore on purported social distinctions at the inter- and intra-site level, stable isotope analyses (carbon, nitrogen and sulphur) were performed on bone collagen of humans (n = 177) and non-human animals (n = 62) from seven archaeological sites located in the same area (< 10 km). This study is the biggest so far on French Neolithic material and thus allows for an extensive investigation at a regional scale. Results show that the human nitrogen isotopic ratios are relatively enriched in nitrogen-15 comparing to those of the domesticated animals. This reflects a trophic step that is rarely observed elsewhere in the surrounding Neolithic people, particularly for humans of the biggest site Gurgy “Les Noisats”. Though zooarchaeological data support a predominant cattle consumption, here, we propose a mixed protein consumption of cattle and pig, possibly complemented with some freshwater resources. Furthermore, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopic ratios suggest some slight differences between sexes and sites. This sexual distinction has rarely been identified in the diet within a Neolithic context. Some variations over time were also detected. On the whole, this study seems to support previous observations made from burial practices about a specific regional Neolithic pattern in the Paris Basin as well as bring new elements into discussion of social organisation in human populations.

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Notes

  1. For simplicity, in the text “animal” excludes humans.

  2. NZ 239 has been accepted though his extraction yield was insufficient; all the other criteria were acceptable.

  3. Some specimens were not identified as domestic with certainty, but have a high probability of being domestic specimens and are consequently considered as such; cf Online Resource 3 noted *

  4. As the different food sources are not known, the authors chose to not apply any mixing model to quantify proportions based on hypothetic food items. Indeed, these models are applied when the isotopic signatures of the different resources are known. Even if a number of uncertainties can be taken into account (Fernandes et al. 2014), there are too many unknowns here. Various resources not identified and which may have different isotopic signatures could have been consumed additionally in varying proportions (e.g. fish, legumes, cereals and wild plants, molluscs, insects, eggs, algae, birds). This would vary the end-members of the model and thus provide completely different results. Tests with hypothetical end-members values were attempted with the Bayesian mixing model FRUITS (Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals, Fernandes et al. 2014) and gave very varied and non-informative results.

  5. Villeneuve-Saint-Germain

  6. Thus far, Balloy is the only site among Cerny’s monumental structures that has had isotopic analyses performed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the researchers who provided information and material for this study: Nicolas Garmond, Jean-Gabriel Pariat, Ludivine Paleau, Jean-Baptiste Mallye, and Pierre Magniez. The authors also thank Gauthier Devilder for his assistance with the CAD. The authors are very grateful to the reviewers for helping to improve this manuscript. This paper has been reviewed by a language editing assistant.

Funding

This research was funded by the DHP project (S. Rottier, Univ. Bordeaux, Lascarbx [ANR-10-LABX-52], 2012–2014) and by the Institut Danone France/Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale 2015 partnership (Women and diet at the beginning of farming, 5th – 3rd millennium BC, France: a bio-anthropological approach; Dir. G. Goude 2016-2017; http://institutdanone.org/nos-prix/femmes-alimentation-les-premieres-societes-agropastorales-ve-iiie-millenaires-av-j-c-france-approche-bio-anthropologique/).

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  1. UMR 5199 – PACEA, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Université de Bordeaux, CS 50023, 33615, Pessac Cedex, France

    L. Rey, F. Santos & S. Rottier

  2. Grupo de Investigación en Prehistoria IT-622-13 (UPV-EHU)/IKERBASQUE-Basque Foundation for Science, Vitoria, Spain

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Domingo C. Salazar-García

  4. CNRS-UMR 7206, Éco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, Musée de l’Homme, 17 place du Trocadéro, F-75116, Paris, France

    P. h. Chambon

  5. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Minist Culture, LAMPEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

    G. Goude

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Rey, L., Salazar-García, D.C., Chambon, P.h. et al. A multi-isotope analysis of Neolithic human groups in the Yonne valley, Northern France: insights into dietary patterns and social structure. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 5591–5616 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00885-6

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