淇县宋庄东周墓地出土贵族和殉人骨骼遗存的稳定同位素分析是国内首例针对东周社会分化背景下不同社会阶层先民开展的食谱研究。稳定碳氮同位素分析结果表明,贵族阶层在主粮和肉食方面与殉人群体明显不同。贵族几乎完全以粟为主粮,食物中肉类含量很高;而殉人阶层整体食肉水平较低,主粮的内部差异显著,大部分个体都不同程度的食用了当时不受青睐的小麦。食谱特征也暗示殉人阶层内部存在地位差异;殉人的食谱特征与同时期城市居民相似,表明他们生前可能跟随贵族居住在城市里,饮食生活状况与普通城市居民相近。这些结果表明东周时期的社会高度分化对先民食物资源分配产生了直接影响。宋庄人群的同位素数据进一步证实小麦在东周时期主要是被社会底层人群食用,为研究古代北方农业结构以及小麦在北方饮食中的扩散过程提供了重要线索。

This is the first study focusing on human diet of people from different social status during the highly stratified Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic values of two nobles and twenty-four human sacrifices from the Songzhuang cemetery revealed significant differences in staple food and meat consumption between these two groups. The nobles had a millet-based diet, and ate significantly more meat than sacrificed individuals; whereas the sacrificial victims consumed varying amounts of wheat as their staple, with some dietary variation. A comparison with contemporary isotopic data also suggests that these human sacrifices had a similar diet with urban commoners, suggesting that when alive they might have lived in cities with their masters. This work has revealed dietary features of human sacrifices, people who were often ignored by textual records. These results also confirm that wheat was mainly eaten by low-status individuals during the Eastern Zhou, providing important information for the study on human diet and social stratification in this period, as well as the investigation of agriculture and the expansion of wheat in northern China.