[Quantitative nutritional reconstruction by trace element data].
Cemeteries without grave goods permit conclusions on the social structure of the underlying population by morphologic skeleton characteristics alone only very restrictedly; though, this social structure may manifest itself in varied nutritional habits, which mirror for their part in the trace element spectra of the skeletal material. A proportional interrelation between Sr-Ca-ratio in food and Sr-Ca-ratio in bone exists, the proportionality factor (observed ratio = OR) being known; the same goes for Ba. This linearity is not given any longer concerning the interrelation between nutritional habits, i.e. the shares of the single food stuffs, and the trace element concentrations of the food and by that of the bone. This makes the use of statistic procedures (cluster analysis) upon the initial trace element data unreliable, so reconstruction of the actual nutrition is necessary. Suitable equation systems do not only supply the wanted individual nutritional habits, but also indicate the metabolism of other trace elements.