Isotope analyses reveal chronological and bioarchaeological consistency at a tribal community of the Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture in Transylvania

By the 4th century CE, the territory of post-Roman Dacia constituted the western frontier of the Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture’s expansion. In this study, we analysed 26 individuals of the culture’s eponymous cemetery in the Carpathians at Sântana de Mureș. Radiocarbon modeling implies that the cemetery might have been established a few years after the Roman Empire’s retreat and was probably used only for a few decades at most. In the meantime, we could not identify the founding generation or any subsequent large-scale mobility within the community. Irrespective of regions, a harsh lifestyle might have characterized the studied individuals, who were probably affected by chronic and epigenetic diseases, strenuous physical exertion and poor overall health conditions. Inadequate intake of nutrients may also have contributed to a difficult lifestyle because access to terrestrial animal protein was modest while millet consumption uniformly dominated over other cereals. In contrast to the lifestyle of the previous provincial society, this type of diet might have been inherited from the predecessor Wielbark culture and most closely resembles that of other contemporary tribal communities, such as the Sarmatians in the Carpathian Basin.