An Isotopic Assessment of Makurian Monastic Diet at the Medieval Nubian Monastery of Ghazali, Sudan (Ca. 680-1,275 CE)

In contrast to contemporaneous Byzantine and Egyptian textual accounts, little is known about medieval Nubian monastic diets. Femur samples from 30 monks interred at Ghazali monastery (occupied ca. 680-1,275 CE), Sudan were examined for delta C-13(col) and delta N-15. delta C-13 averaged - 17.0 parts per thousand +/- 1.0 parts per thousand (range: -14.7 parts per thousand to -19.0 parts per thousand); delta N-15 averaged 11.3 parts per thousand +/- 1.1 parts per thousand (range: 7.5 parts per thousand to 13.4 parts per thousand), suggesting primarily mixed C-3/C-4 diets with variable animal protein consumption. Such data, the first from Nubian monastic contexts, bring forth questions about expected versus actual monastic diets, as well as access to foodstuffs and dietary variation over time, as the diets of the monks were not entirely uniform.