Los comportamientos alimentarios del campesinado medieval en el País Vasco y su entorno (siglos VIII-XIV)

The aim of this paper is to present the results of a study of the nutritional habits of medieval peasants in the Basque Country and its surroundings through the analysis of light stable isotopes in recently excavated anthropological digs. First, several theoretical approaches used to tackle the project of studying medieval diets were analyzed from a critical perspective. In this article a holistic approach is proposed that is systemic in nature, involving a wide methodological arsenal articulated by means of the systematic use of material sources. In this study we have analyzed 71 anthropological samples of adult humans (34 males, 27 females and 10 unclassified) and 16 animals (11 herbivores and 5 omnivores). They were obtained from the excavations of the cemeteries of four sites that have been dated between the 8th and 14th centuries. The analyses show differences in the isotopic composition of the remains of individuals from the four sites, making it possible to draw up a social characterization of their context, and also analyze their differences in diachronic and synchronic terms. Moreover, the isotopic values of these sites diverge from those of other medieval locations that have been studied in the Basque Country and the Iberian Peninsula over the last few years.