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Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis

The great Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, which sank tragically in the Solent in 1545 AD, presents a rare archaeological opportunity to research individuals for whom the precise timing and nature of death are known. A long-standing question surrounds the composition of the Tudor navy and whether the c...

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Autores principales: Scorrer, Jessica, Faillace, Katie E., Hildred, Alexzandra, Nederbragt, Alexandra J., Andersen, Morten B., Millet, Marc-Alban, Lamb, Angela L., Madgwick, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8097207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34035946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202106
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author Scorrer, Jessica
Faillace, Katie E.
Hildred, Alexzandra
Nederbragt, Alexandra J.
Andersen, Morten B.
Millet, Marc-Alban
Lamb, Angela L.
Madgwick, Richard
author_facet Scorrer, Jessica
Faillace, Katie E.
Hildred, Alexzandra
Nederbragt, Alexandra J.
Andersen, Morten B.
Millet, Marc-Alban
Lamb, Angela L.
Madgwick, Richard
author_sort Scorrer, Jessica
collection PubMed
description The great Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, which sank tragically in the Solent in 1545 AD, presents a rare archaeological opportunity to research individuals for whom the precise timing and nature of death are known. A long-standing question surrounds the composition of the Tudor navy and whether the crew were largely British or had more diverse origins. This study takes a multi-isotope approach, combining strontium ((87)Sr/(86)Sr), oxygen (δ(18)O), sulfur (δ(34)S), carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen (δ(15)N) isotope analysis of dental samples to reconstruct the childhood diet and origins of eight of the Mary Rose crew. Forensic ancestry estimation was also employed on a subsample. Provenancing isotope data tentatively suggests as many as three of the crew may have originated from warmer, more southerly climates than Britain. Five have isotope values indicative of childhoods spent in western Britain, one of which had cranial morphology suggestive of African ancestry. The general trend of relatively high δ(15)N and low δ(13)C values suggests a broadly comparable diet to contemporaneous British and European communities. This multi-isotope approach and the nature of the archaeological context has allowed the reconstruction of the biographies of eight Tudor individuals to a higher resolution than is usually possible.
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spelling pubmed-80972072021-05-24 Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis Scorrer, Jessica Faillace, Katie E. Hildred, Alexzandra Nederbragt, Alexandra J. Andersen, Morten B. Millet, Marc-Alban Lamb, Angela L. Madgwick, Richard R Soc Open Sci Organismal and Evolutionary Biology The great Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, which sank tragically in the Solent in 1545 AD, presents a rare archaeological opportunity to research individuals for whom the precise timing and nature of death are known. A long-standing question surrounds the composition of the Tudor navy and whether the crew were largely British or had more diverse origins. This study takes a multi-isotope approach, combining strontium ((87)Sr/(86)Sr), oxygen (δ(18)O), sulfur (δ(34)S), carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen (δ(15)N) isotope analysis of dental samples to reconstruct the childhood diet and origins of eight of the Mary Rose crew. Forensic ancestry estimation was also employed on a subsample. Provenancing isotope data tentatively suggests as many as three of the crew may have originated from warmer, more southerly climates than Britain. Five have isotope values indicative of childhoods spent in western Britain, one of which had cranial morphology suggestive of African ancestry. The general trend of relatively high δ(15)N and low δ(13)C values suggests a broadly comparable diet to contemporaneous British and European communities. This multi-isotope approach and the nature of the archaeological context has allowed the reconstruction of the biographies of eight Tudor individuals to a higher resolution than is usually possible. The Royal Society 2021-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8097207/ /pubmed/34035946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202106 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
Scorrer, Jessica
Faillace, Katie E.
Hildred, Alexzandra
Nederbragt, Alexandra J.
Andersen, Morten B.
Millet, Marc-Alban
Lamb, Angela L.
Madgwick, Richard
Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title_full Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title_fullStr Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title_full_unstemmed Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title_short Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
title_sort diversity aboard a tudor warship: investigating the origins of the mary rose crew using multi-isotope analysis
topic Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8097207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34035946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202106
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