guy Posted August 25, 2021 Report Share Posted August 25, 2021 (edited) View of skeletal remains in one of the vaulted chambers (fornici) during excavation. Luciano Fattore, Sapienza Universita Quote “ Researchers—led by the University of York's BioArCh team—developed a new approach to analyze amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, from 17 adult skeletons found in the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Researchers said they were able to quantify the gender gap more accurately within the group, with males on average obtaining approximately 50 percent more more of their dietary protein from seafood compared with females. The team suggests that fish and seafood made a greater overall contribution to the diets at Herculaneum compared to the average modern Mediterranean diet; the latter increasingly dominated by animal products. Whereas a similar proportion of cereals were consumed between ancient and modern.” https://phys.org/news/2021-08-men-women-roman-herculaneum-diets.html Quote “The source amino acids [AAs] also show significant sex-based dietary differences throughout the group for all food sources with females generally obtaining less of their total dietary protein from fish and cereals than males but relatively more from terrestrial animal products (i.e., meat, eggs, and dairy). This last category could also theoretically include protein from a broad range of locally produced foods, including pulses, legumes, and nuts, as these foodstuffs are likely to have had similar isotope values of source AAs to animal forage.” https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/35/eabg5791 Summary: No one can be certain why men ate more fish and other seafood than women. There could be various explanations: opportunities from maritime work, cultural behavior, etc. That said, it is good to see modern scientific investigations being performed. I would caution against making hasty conclusions, however. Edited February 2 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy Posted August 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2021 (edited) Quote “Herculaneum’s sewers were filled with fish bones, prior research has shown. Typical species would have included porgies, tuna and shellfish.” https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/shellfish-how-men-hogged-seafood-in-ancient-roman-city-hit-by-vesuvius/article Edited February 2 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy Posted August 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2021 (edited) Quote “In the new study, the researchers explain, they checked the stable isotope values of amino acids from bone collagen and used statistical models that incorporate knowledge of protein synthesis. “We were able to reconstruct the diets of seven adults from Herculaneum with unprecedented resolution,” they claim. Men obtained 1.6 times more protein from seafood than the women did, the researchers calculate (and add that they ate a lot more seafood than modern 20th century Mediterranean peoples, but less cereals).“ https://www.haaretz.com/amp/archaeology/.premium-in-herculaneum-men-ate-fish-women-ate-dairy-and-eggs-1.10150529 Edited February 2 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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