AIDE · Archaeology, Inequalities and DiEt (AIDE) : Archaeology assisted by stable isotopes

Archaeology, Inequalities and DiEt (AIDE) : Archaeology assisted by stable isotopes

Research on social inequalities and their biological repercussions is at the heart of the human and social sciences. It has been established only very recently that the economic and social conditions of humans also strongly affect their health throughout their lives. At the beginning of the 21st century, the World Health Organization (WHO) Centre for Health sought to raise awareness among policymakers and public health professionals about social deciding factors of health. Social inequalities reflect lifestyles and have an inequitable impact on the health status of the individual's place in society. For example, the difference in life expectancy in France between managers and workers is currently 6 years, and even reaches 10 years when life expectancy without disability is considered. People at the bottom of the social ladder are at least twice as exposed to the risk of serious illness or premature death as those at the top. But what was the situation in ancient populations? Whatever the period or geographical area considered, the subject is regularly debated by archaeologists and anthropologists. Since the economic and social environment of individuals has an impact on diet and health, the question of inequalities can be addressed using paleo-osteological data collected by archaeology. Currently, the development of preventive archaeology (development-led archaeology) on the French territory allows us to excavate, every year, thousands of human skeletons from all periods, real first-hand documents to understand, in a dynamic way, ancient ways of life. The comparison of data from osteometric and pathological observations or isotopic analyses of bone remains aims to characterize the health status of these societies. Hypotheses can then be formulated on the inequalities that they conveyed, and comparisons with contemporary societies are possible. The AIDE project (Archaeology, Inequalities, and DiEt: Archaeology assisted by stable isotopes), developed under a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship, proposes to work with amino acids from stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes extracted from archaeological skeletons to generate dietary profiles of past populations and observe potential inequalities. By working at the level of archaeological sites, hypotheses of socio-economic groups can be put forward and confronted with the results of isotopic analyses. The ultimate goal is to know if dietary markers are appropriate to observe inequalities, whatever the chronological period or the cultural environment.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union