Supplementary material from "Multi-proxy data from Imola (Northern Italy) reveal diverse trajectories in human lifeways following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire"

Late Antiquity in the Western Roman Empire is widely recognised as a period of political and economic instability. Our multidisciplinary study combining stable and radiogenic isotope analyses, anthropological analyses, radiocarbon dating, and ZooMS analysis examines whether, and how, such instability was reflected in aspects of everyday life in the northern Italian town of Imola. We investigated diachronic trends in diet and spatial mobility for individuals buried in various urban cemeteries within Imola (Emilia-Romagna region) using isotope analysis. Relying on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis, we explored whether dietary variations were driven by human or environmental factors. For a selected subgroup of individuals, oxygen and strontium isotope analyses were conducted to test the hypothesis of a "non-local individuals" presence in Late Antiquity Imola. The results reveal a significant increase in both δ 13 C and δ 15 N values from the Late Roman to the Early Medieval period, suggesting that dietary shifts were likely linked to environmental changes affecting agricultural strategies, and to broader socio-political transformations following the collapse of the Roman Empire.