Isotopic reconstruction of diet at the Vandalic period (ca. 5th–6th centuries AD) Theodosian Wall cemetery at Carthage, Tunisia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Here we present the first isotopic investigation of a Vandalic period site (ca. 5th–6th centuries AD), the Theodosian Wall cemetery at Carthage, in modern day Tunis, Tunisia. The focus of this research is to determine the general diet and food consumption patterns of this population during this important and pivotal period of antiquity in North Africa. To this end, collagen stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N) are reported for a variety of fauna (n= 20) and humans (n= 70). The human mean±SD results (δ13C = −19.3 ± 0.4‰; δ15N = 10.7 ± 1.4‰) reflect a diet that was based predominantly on C3terrestrial plants with varying amounts of animal protein from domestic animals such as sheep/goats, cows, and pigs. No statistically significant isotopic differences between males and females, developmental age, or time period of burial were found. The isotopic results from the Theodosian Wall cemetery at Carthage are compared to eight previously published Roman and Early Byzantine sites from the Mediterranean region (Carrer Ample 1, Joan Planells, S'Hort des Llimoners (Spain); Isola Sacra, Velia, Herculaneum (Italy); Ephesus (Turkey); and Leptiminus (Tunisia)). The lack of significant amounts of marine foods in the diets of the Vandal era population at Carthage is in stark contrast to the Roman inhabitants of Leptiminus, where significant consumption of marine‐derived dietary resources was found. As Leptiminus is ~180 km southeast of Carthage, the work presented here shows that large dietary differences existed in North African populations during antiquity.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".