The medieval period of Denmark (11th-16th centuries) witnessed two of the worst
demographic, health, and dietary catastrophes in history: the Late Medieval Agrarian
Crisis (LMAC) and the Black Death plague epidemic. Historians have argued that these
events resulted in a change in subsistence from a cereal grain to a more pastorallyfocused
diet, and that the population decimation resulted in improved living conditions.
This dissertation bioarchaeologically examines the impact of these historically described
events on the diet and health of the population from Jutland, Denmark. I examine the
stable isotopic ratios of carbon and nitrogen, dental caries, cribra orbitalia, porotic
hyperostosis, periosteal reactions, and femur length to examine the samples for dietary
and health differences due to sex, time period, site and social status.
The results suggest that there are few chronological differences in diet or health in
these samples. There are greater disparities among the sites, as peasants from the rural
site had a more terrestrially-based diet and poorer health than the urban sites. While there
is little difference in diet by sex, there is a disparity in health between the sexes.
However, the direction of difference varies by site, suggesting that the relative treatment
of the sexes was not universal in Denmark. While the results indicate there is little difference in health by status, there are dietary differences, as elites had a more marinebased
diet than peasants.
This research indicates the importance of bioarchaeological analysis in the
interpretation of historical events. The recording of history is dependent on the viewpoint
of the recorder and may not accurately reflect the importance of events on the the
population itself. Bioarchaeological techniques examine skeletal material from the
individuals in question and may provide a better understanding of the consequences of
historic events on the population, such as the effects of the LMAC and Black Death on
the population of Denmark. This research reveals that, contrary to historical expectation,
these events did not have a measurable impact on Danish diet or health. Thus, the use of
historical documentation and bioarchaeological analyses provides a richer understanding
of these historical events.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1725 |
| Date | 02 June 2009 |
| Creators | Yoder, Cassady J. |
| Contributors | Wright, Lori E. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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