Relief Food Subsistence Revealed by Microparticle and Proteomics Analyses of Dental Calculus From Victims of the Great Irish Famine

ABSTRACT: Food and diet were class markers in nineteenth-century Ireland, which became evident as nearly one million people, primarily the poor and destitute, died as a consequence of the notorious Great Famine of 1845–1852. Famine took hold after a blight (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed the only means of subsistence—the potato crop—for a significant proportion of the population. This study seeks to elucidate the variability of diet in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland through microparticle and proteomic analysis of human dental calculus samples (n = 42) from victims of the Famine. The sample derives from remains of people who died between August 1847 and March 1851 while receiving poor relief as inmates in the union workhouse in the city of Kilkenny (52°39’N, -7°15’W). The results corroborate the historical accounts of food provisions before and during the Famine, with evidence of corn (maize), potato and cereal starch granules from the microparticle analysis and milk proteins from the proteomic analysis. Unexpectedly, there is also evidence of egg proteins—a food source generally reserved only for export and the better-off social classes—which highlights the variability of the Famine experience for those who died. Through historical contextualisation, this study shows how the notoriously monotonous potato diet of the nineteenth-century Irish poor was supplemented by other foodstuffs on an opportunistic basis. While the Great Irish Famine was one of the worst subsistence crises in history, it was foremost a social disaster induced by the lack of access to food and not the lack of food availability.

INSTRUMENT(S): Q Exactive

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (human)

TISSUE(S): Dental Plaque

SUBMITTER: Ashley Scott  

LAB HEAD: Christina Warinner

PROVIDER: PXD015002 | Pride | 2019-10-17

REPOSITORIES: Pride