bunnyjadwiga

But then, it's not detailed enough to our recipe-loving hearts anyway.

Here's the abstract:

During the Middle Ages, the economies of Europe, the religious directives involving dietary requirements, and the general human subsistence base were transformed. These complicated and intertwined issues are starkly revealed in an isotopic study of two inland Italian human populations that are separated by approximately 850 years in time. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic values observed in human dentin and bone collagen from the sites of early medieval Castro dei Volsci and late medieval Rome are consistent with diets that differed substantially. As the North Atlantic opened to fishing and food preservations methods improved, Mediterranean peoples increased their fish consumption dramatically, and in doing so, met the religious directives of the Catholic Church. By analyzing both teeth and bone collagen within individuals, long-term feeding behaviors are documented, and the utility of last erupted teeth collagen as sources of adult dietary information is established. This study offers the first physical evidence of this new economic reality linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean economies at the end of the Middle Ages.

Here's their conclusions, which are somewhat readable:

Stable carbon and nitrogen values in teeth and bones from Castro dei Volsci and Rome indicate a significant change in diets between the early and late medieval periods. Compared to the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea is relatively poor in fish (Braudel, 1972 F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Harper and Row Publishers, New York (1972).Braudel, 1972). Recent archaeological and historical research shows that, beginning around 1000 AD, northern Europe's economic and demographic growth fueled an expansion of the food supply and market economy from industrial-scale fishing in the Atlantic (Barrett et al., 2004). Medieval innovations in northern Europe made viable large-scale fishing of distinctively Atlantic species: floating nets allowed large harvests of herring (Ervynck et al., 2004), which were barrel pickled in brine, a technique suited to the preservation of the oily flesh of that superabundant fish; and drying preserved the very different flesh of cod in the climate conditions of northern latitudes ([Heinrich, 1986] and [Robinson, 2000]). By capturing vast quantities of fish and preserving them much longer than had been widely possible before, the innovations fostered an Atlantic fishing industry whose long-distance supply met demand arising from growing northern European urban market networks and deepening observance of Christian fasting. The written records indicate that this new, more affordable and stockable Atlantic marine food supply reached Italy by the shipload in the later fourteenth century (Nigro, 1997) after the Genoese and then the Venetians created cheaper, direct sea links between Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports in the decades around 1300 (Lane, 1973). The increased consumption of marine resources observed in the individuals from Rome may offer the first physical evidence of this new economic reality linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean economies at the end of the Middle Ages.