York Historic Environment Record

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was conducted for three Anglo-Scandinavian humans from Coppergate (SK 15548, SK 30944, SK 36318). The sample material in each case was a small piece of rib (c. 1 cm long). From this bone sample, the protein (collagen) portion was extracted in the laboratory and then analysed for its carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition with the aid of an isotope ratio mass-spectrometer. Crucially, the samples from Coppergate give the only palaeodietary data available so far from the Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking) period in York. They