Diet, Health and Agriculture

The Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Example of Abbekås, Southern Sweden

Abstract

Diet and health during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Scandinavia have never been under systematic study. Still, high statures have been reported from osteologists, statures that indicate good health. This article is based on a pilot study examining health changes in relation to dietary changes due to intensified agriculture and the possible Secondary Products Revolution as discussed by Sherratt in the early 1980s. Several different bioarchaeological methods for investigating health are applied to the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age graves of Abbekås, southernmost Sweden, showing several parameters connected to health and viewing tendencies of health changes possibly connected to an agricultural intensification.