A03_P06

Identification of high-status medieval individuals by Bayesian chronological modelling of precise ¹⁴C ages

Meadows J^1,2, Lemm T¹, Homann A³, Nösler D⁴, Krause-Kyora B⁵, Jungklaus B, Hamann C²

¹ZBSA (Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology), Kiel, Germany, ²Leibniz-Laboratory for AMS Dating and Stable Isotope Research, Christian-Albrechts-University Kie, Kiel, Germany, ³Städtisches Museum Schloß Salde, Salzgitter, Germany, ⁴Archäologische Denkmalpflege des Landkreises Stade, , Germany, ⁵Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), Christian-Albrechts-University Kie, Kiel, Germany

Excavations in 1992-93 at the Harsefeld abbey, in Stade, northern Germany, recovered 26 skeletons from the burial ground of the Udonen family. Graves were unmarked, but the Udonens, also known as the Counts of Stade, are historically well-documented. The first count buried at Harsefeld was Heinrich (d.975/976). Count Udo was killed during a Viking raid on Stade in 994; his nephew Siegfried was injured in the same attack and died a few months later. Other documented burials include women born elsewhere, such as Mechtild of Swabia (died before 1016). The latest burials predate a destructive fire recorded in 1236.

We aim to identify each skeleton with a historically documented individual, through a combination of osteological, genetic, and isotopic analyses, including Bayesian chronological modelling to estimate the birth and death dates of each skeleton. After recording age-at-death, sex, height, pathologies and trauma, each individual was sampled for ancient DNA, ¹⁴C, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope analyses. Where possible, we dated both a rib and a petrous bone from each individual.

Our chronological model combines 47 ¹⁴C ages (with allowance, where indicated, for modest ¹⁴C reservoir effects) with collagen residence time estimates based on age-at-death and the skeletal element dated, stratigraphic constraints on the sequence of burials, and archaeogenetic kinship constraints on the maximum differences between birth dates. It produces a chronology with generational precision, permitting individual skeletons to be identified using complementary information such as their region of origin, injuries or illnesses.