ORIGINAL PAPER A combined analysis of dietary habits in the Bronze Age site of Ballabio (northern Italy) Sabrina Masotti 1 & Alessandra Varalli 2,3 & Gwenaëlle Goude 2 & Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi 4 & Emanuela Gualdi-Russo 1 Received: 28 February 2017 /Accepted: 13 December 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract In recent years, the ever more frequent studies on the Bronze Age in northern Italy have shown the importance of this area for cultural and economic exchanges between central and southern Europe. The aim of the present multidisciplinary study was to define the health, behaviour and dietary habits in an Early-Middle Bronze Age skeletal sample from the Ballabio necropolis (Lecco, Italy). Skeletal remains were found in two adjacent funerary structures, interpreted as primary burials and as places of secondary deposition. Studies on the health and diet of the individuals were based on dental-alveolar features, and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. The individuals exhibit a low prevalence of caries, abscesses and ante-mortem tooth loss, but do exhibit high calculus and alveolar resorption rates, suggesting a subsistence pattern based on pastoralism more than agriculture. Stable isotope ratios indicate a mixed diet and support the hypothesis of a protein intake based on terrestrial resources, with an appreciable amount of animal foodstuffs. There are no statistically significant sex or age differences, although adolescents and young adults (15–25 years old) seem to have consumed more animal protein. The isotope data from Ballabio are similar to other Early Bronze Age data collected from other sites in northern Italy. However, the pattern changed during the Middle Bronze Age, suggesting complex agricultural modifications in this area impacted by new crops such as millet. Keywords Bronze age . Archaeozoological . Necropolis . Dental pathology . Diet . Stable isotopes Introduction Dietary habits can provide information about the lifestyle, health and economic status of past populations. Anthropological and archaeological studies have recently highlighted the pivotal im- portance of combining different approaches to better understand the living conditions and dietary preferences of past populations, particularly those of prehistoric periods for which no written sources are available (Lillie et al. 2003; Valentin et al. 2006; Homes Hogue and Melsheimer 2008; Schmidt et al. 2016; Varalli et al. 2016a, b). In the case of a cemetery comprising single burials and pri- mary depositions, it is relatively straightforward to reconstruct the life story of an individual because all the information regard- ing the subject is accessible. In the case of collective burials and secondary deposition, where it is only occasionally possible to associate the different skeletal elements to an individual, combin- ing different studies becomes crucial to the reconstruction of a comprehensive picture of the living conditions of a human group. However, only a few studies have pursued the integration of data from different approaches which directly inform on dietary habits, such as analyses of dental features and stable isotope values, despite evidence that by combining data from multiple trajectories it is possible to define subsistence strategies over time and dietary trends within and between populations (Murphy et al. 2013; Bonsall and Pickard 2015; Schmidt et al. Sabrina Masotti and Alessandra Varalli contributed equally to this work * Sabrina Masotti sabrina.masotti@unife.it Alessandra Varalli alessandravaralli@gmail.com 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences and Surgical Specialties, University of Ferrara, Corso Ercole I D’Este, 32, 44121 Ferrara, Italy 2 Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Minist Culture & Com, LAMPEA, Aix-en-Provence, France 3 Laboratoire d’archéologie préhistorique et anthropologie, Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l’environnement et de l’eau, Uni Carl Vogt, Université de Genève, 66 Boulevard Carl Vogt, CH -1211 Genève 4, Switzerland 4 Laboratorio di Antropologia, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via del Proconsolo, 12, 50122 Florence, Italy Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0588-0