Study reveals gender-based diet inequality in ancient European societies

A new Simon Fraser University study has found men in ancient Europe likely had better access to protein-rich foods than women did.

Analyzing samples from more than 12,000 skeletons from hundreds of sites across Europe over a 10,000-year period, researchers say the findings are strong evidence of long-suspected gender-based diet inequalities throughout history.

We think these differences were largely culturally motivated. In earlier periods, animal protein was energetically 'expensive' to obtain, and in later periods it often carried higher monetary costs. As a result, it likely became a higher-status food and was preferentially consumed by males."

Michael Richards, archaeology professor and senior author of the study

Published in PNAS Nexus, the study analyzed isotopes found in 12,281 individuals across 393 sites in Europe dating as far back as10,000 years. Isotopes are chemical markers in human remains that allow researchers to reconstruct past diets. 

Nitrogen isotopes reflect the amount of animal protein consumed while carbon isotopes indicate how much plant-based foods, like grains, were ingested.

To compare inequality across different regions and time periods, researchers applied a method from economics known as the interdecile ratio. This approach provides a standardized way to measure how diets differed within populations.

Study results show men were more often among those with the richest diets, while women were more frequently among those with poorer diets. 

In early Neolithic farming societies (approximately 10000 to 2000 BC), diets were relatively similar, though differences between men and women were present. Inequality increased during the Bronze Age (3300 to 1200 BC), alongside advances in agriculture and more complex social hierarchies, and reached its peak in Classical Antiquity (700 BC to 500 AD).

Biological factors may account for some of the differences in diet, since females often (not always) require fewer calories per day than males, Richards says. But diet disparities widened over time, with the gap between the highest- and lowest-status individuals increasing based on nitrogen isotope values, explains Richards.

"This was especially pronounced in the medieval period, where clear dietary differences emerge between upper and lower classes of society," he says. 

Co-authored by SFU postdoctoral fellow Rozenn Colleter, this research was conducted in collaboration with the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research and Géosciences Environment Toulouse. Some of the samples used in this study were analyzed in SFU's Isotope Laboratory, one of the few isotope labs in the world based within a university archaeological department.