| Summary: | This thesis presents a multiple isotope examination of mobility and dietary intake of three Middle Saxon populations drawn from the region of eastern England, broadly analogous to the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia. The centuries from AD 650 to 850 were a period of economic transformation, reflected in the appearance of new site types prominent in the archaeological record, in particular emporia and high-status estate centres. Scholarship has suffered from ‘top down’ interpretations of economic development, obscuring the rural populations who appear to have been the true agents of progress.
For the first time in archaeological science, six isotope systems are analysed from human teeth and bone to examine mobility and dietary intake, in an attempt to identify the mobile artisans, producers and agriculturalists driving forward the new economy, as well as the new mercantile class of traders thought to be resident at the emporia. Three cemetery populations are examined via strontium, oxygen, lead, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur analysis.
The data have highlighted significant levels of mobility on a regional and possibly international scale, and variation in diet suggestive of a diverse range of protein sources and subsistence regimes, suggestive of considerable social differentiation amongst and between populations. The data obtained for this study will form a significant addition to the UK wide datasets of isotope data pertaining to archaeological humans in Britain.
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