Fig 1.
A diagram showing the direction of dentine development in a human molar tooth, the relationship between Andresen bands and the mineralizing front, and points A and B within the same Andresen band [11].
Table 1.
Tooth notation, developmental stage of teeth, age at death and sex of individuals [36] from Kilkenny Union workhouse.
Table 2.
Isotope data and collagen quality indicators for dentine sections from teeth from Kilkenny Union Workhouse (KUW 1,4,9,12,13,14,16 previously published in Beaumont et al. 2015[14]).
Table 3.
Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio values for international and laboratory standards used in this study.
Fig 2.
Incremental dentine carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratio profile for KUW 1 an adult who died at ~ 23–37 years of age, i.e. at least 13 years after the tooth finished mineralising. Analytical uncertainty is shown at +/- 0.4‰ (2sd).
Fig 3.
Incremental dentine carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratio profiles for juveniles from Kilkenny Union Workhouse aligned with the estimated calendar year of life: the blue vertical line denotes the introduction of maize as a C4 relief food in March 1846.
Fig 4.
Incremental dentine carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratio profile of KUW 4 a juvenile who died ~13 years of age when the tooth was still mineralising.
It shows the opposing covariance famine pattern age 4.5 to 7 years followed by the maize pattern 8.5 to 13 years. Analytical uncertainty is shown at +/- 0.4‰ (2sd).
Fig 5.
Plot showing the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios for the bulk rib bone collagen [36] and whole tooth mean dentine collagen for the adult individuals from Kilkenny Union workhouse.
Analytical uncertainty is shown at +/- 0.4‰ (2sd).
Fig 6.
Incremental dentine carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratio profile of KUW 5 an adult female who died at ~21 to 38 years of age, i.e. at least 7 years after the tooth finished mineralising.
It shows the opposing covariance maize pattern age 4 to 7 years, and the famine pattern age 8.5 to 12 years. Analytical uncertainty is shown at +/- 0.4‰ (2sd).