University of Groningen
Reconstructing diet, tracing mobility
Panagiotopoulou, Eleni
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Panagiotopoulou, E. (2018). Reconstructing diet, tracing mobility: Ιsotopic approach to social change during
the transition from the Bronze to the Early Iron Age in Thessaly, Greece. University of Groningen.
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Reconstructing diet, tracing mobility
Isotopic approach to social change during the transition
from the Bronze to the Early Iron Age in Thessaly, Greece
PhD thesis
to obtain the degree of PhD at the
University of Groningen
on the authority of the
Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken
and in accordance with
the decision by the College of Deans.
This thesis will be defended in public on
Thursday 13 September 2018 at 11:00 hours
by
Eleni Panagiotopoulou
born on 19 July 1976
in Athens, Greece
Supervisors
Prof. S. Voutsaki
Prof. J. van der Plicht
Co-supervisor
Dr. A. Papathanasiou
Assessment committee
Prof. J.P. Crielaard
Prof. J.K. Papadopoulos
Prof. M.P. Richards
Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen
ISBN:
978-94-034-0935-1 (printed book)
978-94-034-0934-4 (e-book)
©2018 by Eleni Panagiotopoulou
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be
reproduced or utilised in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior
permission of the author.
Acknowledgements
Having reached the end of my PhD I would like to thank all the people that contributed to the successful
completion of this project and for making this period a unique experience that definitely transformed me.
First of all I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Sofia dr. Voutsaki, Greek
Archae-ology, Groningen Institute of ArchaeArchae-ology, University of Groningen and Prof. dr. ir. Johannes van der Plicht,
Centre for Isotope Research (CIO), Faculty of Science and Engineering Isotope Research – Energy and
Sus-tainability Research Institute Groningen, University of Groningen and co-supervisor Dr. Anastasia
Papathana-siou, Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Greek Ministry of Culture for believing in me and for
their support during the entire period of this research project. Their academic influence was immense and I
learned so much as their student.
I would also like to deeply thank the three external examiners Prof. dr. J.P. Crielaard, Faculty of
Humani-ties, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Prof. J.K. Papadopoulos, Department of Classics, Cotsen Institute of
Ar-chaeology, UCLA and Prof. M.P. Richards, Department of ArAr-chaeology, Simon Fraser University for reading
my work, for giving me very constructive comments that improved my thesis and for coming to the
cer-emony of my PhD defence.
Of course, I would like to thank all the people that I had the pleasure to meet, work with and co-author
the articles of this thesis.
I will start with the archaeologists that honoured me with their trust working on the archaeological
ma-terial they excavated and the corresponding archaeological ephorates that granted me access to the
exca-vated assemblages to conduct my research: Dr. A. Doulgeri-Intzesiloglou, Director Emerita of the Ephorate
of Antiquities of Magnesia and excavator and researcher of the site of Chloe; Mrs. P. Arachoviti,
Archaeol-ogist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Magnesia and excavator and researcher of the site of Chloe; Dr. S.
Katakouta, Archaeologist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Larisa and the excavator and researcher of the
site of Pharsala; Mrs. F. Tsiouka, Archaeologist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa and researcher of
the site of Voulokaliva; and Mrs. E. Nikolaou, Archaeologist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Magnesia and
excavator and researcher of the site of Kephalosi.
I will continue with the lab people that accepted my request to work in the laboratories and conduct all
the isotope analyses myself, taught me a lot, helped to go through the lab requirements, and created a very
friendly and happy atmosphere to work in: Dr. J. Montgomery, Associate Professor (Reader) in
Archaeologi-cal Science at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University; Dr. G.M. Nowell, Senior Research Officer
in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University; Ms. J. Peterkin, Research Laboratory Technician
at the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University; everyone at the laboratory of the CIO, Faculty
of Science and Engineering Isotope Research – Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen for
the friendly environment but special thanks to Mr. F.N. Ghebru, Analyst at the CIO with whom I closely
col-laborated; Dr. O. Nehlich, post-doctoral fellow (Stipend of the German Science Foundation - DFG) at The
University of British Columbia - Department of Anthropology, at the time I visited the laboratory; and Ms. E.
Jarvis, Laboratory Technician at the University of British Columbia - Department of Anthropology, also at the
time I visited the laboratory.
Many thanks to all the people at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, both academic and
non-academic staff because I learned from them so much more outside my own research field, they helped
me to resolve simple everyday difficulties and the introduced me to their wonderful country, the Netherlands.
Furthermore, I would like to thank my peers at the department for the influential conversations we had both
on academic and non-academic topics.
Special gratitude to my academic roommates Tamara M. Dijkstra, Olivia A. Jones, Dr. Tanja van Loon and
Dr. Sarah Willemsen for their warm and open heart and moral and academic support as well as for becoming
lifetime friends.
accepting the role of paranymph at my PhD defence, for improving my thesis with their clear view and
com-ments and for organizing the defence party.
Last but not least I would like to say to my family and friends in Greece thank you for your moral support
and for being patient with the difficulties that my absence might have caused to you. A significant part of
my future is dedicated to you.
Contents
PART I
1.1 Summary ...11
Samenvatting ...13
Περίληψη ...15
1.2 Scope and Aims ...17
1.3 The Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age ...18
1.3.1 The End of Late Bronze Age ...18
1.3.2 The Early Iron Age (EIA) ...19
1.3.3 Thessaly in the Early Iron Age ...20
1.3.4 Mortuary practices in Protogeometric Thessaly (c. 1100-900 BC) ...21
1.4 Questions and Theories ...25
1.5 Methodology ...26
1.5.1 Contextual analysis of mortuary practices ...26
1.5.2 Isotope analysis ...26
Tissue ...27
Stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope analysis (CNS) ...27
Strontium isotope analysis...32
1.5.3 Sampling osteological material ...34
i. Carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope analysis (CNS) ...34
ii. Strontium isotope analysis ...34
1.6 Contextual analysis of the mortuary practices of Voulokaliva and Kephalosi in Halos, Chloe, and Pharsala ...35
i. Quality of documentation ...35
ii. Assumptions underlying the contextual analysis of mortuary practices ...35
1.6.1 The Protogeometric cemeteries of Halos: Voulokaliva and Kephalosi ...37
The cemetery of Voulokaliva ...37
The Cemetery of Kephalosi ...39
Discussion ...41
Discussion of Main Patterns ...43
Research Questions concerning Halos ...43
1.6.2 The Protogeometric cemetery of Chloe ...43
Discussion ...45
Discussion of main patterns ...46
Research questions concerning Chloe ...46
1.6.3 The Protogeometric cemeteries of Pharsala ...46
Site 1-“cemetery”/”tumulus” ...47
Site 2 ...48
Discussion ...49
Discussion of main patterns ...51
Research questions concerning Pharsala ...52
1.7 Main Patterns of the Sites ...52
1.8 Conclusions, Questions, and Hypotheses ...52
1.8.1 Variation and differentiation ...52
1.8.2 Change and continuity ...53
PART II Introduction ...57
Chapter 2 Isotopic (13C, 15N) investigation of diet and social structure in Early Iron Age Halos, Greece ...59
2.1. Introduction ...59
2.2. Materialς and methods ...61
2.2.1 Materialς ...61
i. The Protogeometric cemetery of Kephalosi ...61
ii. The Protogeometric cemetery of Voulokaliva ...61
2.2.2. Methods ...62
i. Age-sex determination ...62
ii. Contextual analysis ...62
iii. Sampling strategy for diet reconstruction ...62
iv. Isotope analysis ...62
2.3. Results ...64
2.3.1. Collagen preservation ...64
2.3.2. Demographic profile and contextual analysis ...64
2.3.3. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis ...66
2.4. Discussion ...68
2.5. Conclusions ...71
Chapter 3 Diet and social divisions in protohistoric Greece: integrating analyses of stable isotopes and mortuary practices ...73
3.1. Introduction ...73
3.2. Materials and Methods ...75
3.2.1. Materials ...75
i. The cemeteries of Pharsala ...75
ii. The cemetery of Chloe ...75
iii. The human osteological assemblage ...75
3.2.2. Methods ...75
i. Osteological analysis ...75
ii. Contextual analysis ...75
iii. Sampling design ...76
iv. Isotope analysis ...76
3.3. Results and Discussion ...76
3.3.1. Demographic profile ...76
3.3.2. Contextual analysis of the mortuary data ...77
3.3.3 Sampling ...80
3.4. Isotope analysis ...82
3.5. Conclusions ...87
Chapter 4 Fish consumption in Early Iron Age Greece? Sulfur stable isotope analysis of human populations ...89
4.1. Introduction ...89
4.1.1. Archaeological, archaeozoological, and isotopic evidence of fish consumption in Greece ...90
4.1.2. Sulfur isotope ratios in mammalian
collagen ...91
4.2. Material and methods ...92
4.2.1. Materials ...92 i. Voulokaliva...92 ii. Kephalosi ...92 iii. Pharsala ...92 iv. Chloe ...93 4.2.2. Methods ...93
4.3. Results and Discussion ...93
4.4. Conclusions ...97
Chapter 5 Detecting mobility in Early Iron Age Thessaly by strontium isotope analysis ...99
5.1. Introduction ...100
5.2. Archaeological context ...101
5.3. Variation in burial practices ...101
5.4. The environmental context of Greece and Thessaly ...102
5.5. Materials and method ...103
5.5.1. Enamel and environmental samples...103
5.5.2. Strontium isotope analysis...105
5.6. Laboratory procedure...105
5.7. Strontium isotope results ...108
5.7.1. Chloe ...108
5.7.2. Voulokaliva ...109
5.7.3. Pharsala ...110
5.8. Population movements in the Early Iron Age ...111
5.9. Conclusions ...112
PART III Chapter 6 Discussion & Conclusions ...117
6.1 Discussion ...117
6.1.1 Social Variation and Differentiation ...118
6.1.2 Change and Continuity ...122
6.2. Conclusions ...123
Chapter 7 Appendices ...127
7.1 Appendix 1: Maps ...127
7.2 Appendix 2: Excavation Plans ...131
7.3 Appendix 3: Charts ...133
7.4 Appendix 4: Tables ...138
7.5 Appendix 5: Isotopic Plots ...149
