Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 83. (Budapest 1991)

Pais, I. ; Tóth, T.: Human paleonutrition [sic] in the Carpathian Basin from the Neolithic to Mediaeval times based on osteochemical analysis

International literature (GRUPPE 1988) widely accepts that barium, strontium and zinc content can be used as indicators in reconstructing dietary pattern by using skeletals of earlier populations. Based on our analytical data, we calculated in all cases the Sr/Zn ratios and these values are shown in Table 13. These values were relatively high in the Neolithic and the Copper age. This is the consequence of food consumption of higher plant- and lower animal-origin in the daily diet. These rations decreased in the iron and in the Roman era, showing that these populations consumed more food of animal-origin. It is really very interesting that in the period of the Hungarian Conquest, these values became higher again, possibly because the Hungarians were nomads and the domesticated animals played a smaller role in their nutrition. In the period of the first Hungarian royal dynasty, the values again became lower, showing the higher quantity of animal-proteins in their daily diet. * * * Acknowledgement - The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to Dr. ÁRPÁD TÓTH and Dr. PÉTER FODOR for the analytical cooperation, to Dr. ANTAL FERENCZY for the mathemathical evaluation, further to Dr. NÁNDOR KALICZ (Neolithic), Dr. PÁL PATAY (Copper age), Dr. ERZSÉBET PATEK (Iron age), Dr. ENDRE BÍRÓ (Roman epoch) for their advice on the archeology of the chronological periods and to ZSUZSANNA ZOFFMANN for making osteological samples available. This research work was supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences under the code-number: MTA-AKA 1-300-2-89-0-671. References BRÄTTER, P., GAWLIK, D. & ROsiCK, U. (1987): A view into the past: trace element analysis of human bone from former times. - Homo 39: 99-106. FRANCALACCI, P. (1989): Dietary reconstruction at Arene Candida cave (Liguria, Italy) by means of trace element analysis. Archeol. Sei. 16: 109-124. GRUPPE, G. (1988): Impact of the choice of bone samples ontrace element data in excavated human skeletons. -J. Archeol Sei. 15: 123-129. KOSUGI, H., HANIHARA, K., SUZUKI, T, HIMENO, S., KAWABE, T, HONGO, T. & MORITA, M. (1986): Elemental composition of ancient Japanese bones. - Sei. Total Environm. 52: 93-107. PAIS, I. (1989a): Development in the trace element research. A review: our knowledge at present and trends in the near future. -ActaAgron. Hung. 38: 167-175. PAIS, I. (1989b): The importance of trace elements in life. - Kertészeti Egyetem, Budapest: 292 pp. (In Hungarian) TÓTH, T. (1980): Some anthropological problems of the early postglacial and historic Europoids. - Annls histnat. Mus. nam. Hung. 72: 295-307. TÓTH, T (1984): Some anthropological problems of the mesolithic Europoids I. - Annls hist-nat. Mus. nam Hung. 76: 323-334. TÓTH, T (1987): Men and nutrition in the Carpathian postglacial millenia. - Annls hist-nat. Mus. nam Hung. 79: 281-292. Authors' addresses: Prof. István Pais Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of Horticulture and Food Industry H-1502 Budapest, Villányi út 29-31 Hungary Dr. Tibor Tóth Anthropological Department Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1062 Budapest, Bajza utca 39 Hungary