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 δ13Ccol and δ15N. δ13C averaged ‐ 17.0‰ ± 1.0‰ (range: −14.7‰ to −19.0‰); δ15N averaged 11.3‰ ± 1.1‰ (range: 7.5‰ to 13.4‰), suggesting primarily mixed C3/C4 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.