Mass burials in yaroslavl. Reconstruction of nutrition system based on the isotope analysis

The article is devoted to the results of isotope analysis of human and animalbones from nine mass burials revealed by salvage excavations in the Yaroslavl Kremlin.The objects were determined as mass burials of the city defenders and the citizens killedduring its destruction by the Mongols in 1238. Isotope analysis let reconstructing nutritionsystem of the mediaeval city inhabitants. Values of isotope indicators δ 1 and δ 15Νwere established and used to determine proportion of vegetable and animal componentsin the average nutrition ratio. It shows that daily food of the citizens was varied, withenough proteins, unlike some rural regions of the Russian North. The results from Yaroslavlare compared with the data on nutrition of medieval population of the adjacent Moscowregion. The results obtained from the coeval kurgan cemetery of Novoselki (13 th c.) differfrom the discussed ones.