Abstract

Radiocarbon dating has been performed on cortical femoral tissue samples from Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) and his wife Kirsten Barbara Jørgensdatter (1549–1604). No discernible reservoir effect has been observed in either skeleton. This combined with unusually high δ15N values and seemingly terrestrial δ13C values, makes us suggest that a large fraction of their protein intake came from freshwater fish raised in stagnant pools.

Details

Title
On the diet of Tycho Brahe and his wife: did they consume fish from stagnant pools?
Author
van der Plicht Johannes 1 ; Kaupová, Sylva Drtikolová 2 ; Velemínský Petr 2 ; Smolík Jiří 3 ; Kučera, Jan 4 ; Kameník, Jan 4 ; Havránek Vladimír 4 ; Brůžek Jaroslav 5 ; Vellev Jens 6 ; Rasmussen, Kaare Lund 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Center for Isotope Research, Groningen, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.5132.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 2312 1970) 
2  National Museum, Department of Anthropology, Prague 1, Czech Republic (GRID:grid.425401.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2243 1723) 
3  Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 6, Czech Republic (GRID:grid.424931.9) (ISNI:0000 0004 0560 1470) 
4  Nuclear Physics Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Řež 130, Czech Republic (GRID:grid.425110.3) (ISNI:0000 0000 8965 6073) 
5  Charles University, Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Prague 2, Czech Republic (GRID:grid.4491.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 116X); Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS, UMR 5199 PACEA, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Talence, France (GRID:grid.412041.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2106 639X) 
6  Section for Medieval and Renaissance Archaeology, Department of Culture and Society, Højbjerg, Denmark (GRID:grid.412041.2) 
7  Cultural Heritage and Archaeometric Research Team (CHART), Institute of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark (GRID:grid.10825.3e) (ISNI:0000 0001 0728 0170) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Dec 2020
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
20507445
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-00399-8
ProQuest document ID
2426019908
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.