Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 116, Issue 39, Pages 19380-19385Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1908839116
Keywords
bioarchaeology; paleoethnobotany; microfossil; potato; poverty
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Funding
- Irish Antiquities Division of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI)
- Johan and Jakob Soderberg's Foundation
- Royal Irish Academy
- Wellcome Trust [096435/Z/11/Z]
- US NSF [BCS-1523264]
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
- Department of Anatomy of the University of Otago
- National Monuments Service
- Wellcome Trust [096435/Z/11/Z] Funding Source: Wellcome Trust
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Food and diet were class markers in 19th-century Ireland, which became evident as nearly 1 million people, primarily the poor and destitute, died as a consequence of the notorious Great Famine of 1845 to 1852. Famine took hold after a blight (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed virtually the only means of subsistence-the potato crop-for a significant proportion of the population. This study seeks to elucidate the variability of diet in mid-19th-century Ireland through microparticle and proteomic analysis of human dental calculus samples (n = 42) from victims of the famine. The samples derive from remains of people who died between August 1847 and March 1851 while receiving poor relief as inmates in the union workhouse in the city of Kilkenny (52 degrees 39' N, -7 degrees 15' W). The results corroborate the historical accounts of food provisions before and during the famine, with evidence of corn (maize), potato, and cereal starch granules from the microparticle analysis and milk protein from the proteomic analysis. Unexpectedly, there is also evidence of egg protein-a food source generally reserved only for export and the better-off social classes-which highlights the variability of the prefamine experience for those who died. Through historical contextualization, this study shows how the notoriously monotonous potato diet of the poor was opportunistically supplemented by other foodstuffs. While the Great Irish Famine was one of the worst subsistence crises in history, it was foremost a social disaster induced by the lack of access to food and not the lack of food availability.
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