On the diet of Tycho Brahe and his wife: did they consume fish from stagnant pools?

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating has been performed on cortical femoral tissue samples from Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and his wife Kirsten Barbara Jorgensdatter (1549-1604). No discernible reservoir effect has been observed in either skeleton.

This combined with unusually high delta N-15 values and seemingly terrestrial delta C-13 values, makes us suggest that a large fraction of their protein intake came from freshwater fish raised in stagnant pools.

Keywords

• Tycho Brahe
• Kirsten Jorgensdatter
• Diet
• C-13
• N-15
• Radiocarbon