Isotopic evidence for residential mobility of farming communities during the transition to agriculture in Britain

Abstract

Development of agriculture is often assumed to be accompanied by a decline in residential mobility, and sedentism is frequently proposed to provide the basis for economic intensification, population growth and increasing social complexity. In Britain, however, the nature of the agricultural transition (ca 4000 BC) and its effect on residence patterns has been intensely debated. Some authors attribute the transition to the arrival of populations who practised a system of sedentary intensive mixed farming similar to that of the very earliest agricultural regimes in central Europe, ca 5500 BC, with cultivation of crops in fixed plots and livestock keeping close to permanently occupied farmsteads. Others argue that local hunter–gatherers within Britain adopted selected elements of a farming economy and retained a mobile way of life. We use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel from an Early Neolithic burial population in Gloucestershire, England, to evaluate the residence patterns of early farmers. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that early farming communities in Britain were residentially mobile and were not fully sedentary. Results highlight the diverse nature of settlement strategies associated with early farming in Europe and are of wider significance to understanding the effect of the transition to agriculture on residence patterns.

Land use and mobility during the Neolithic in Wales explored using isotope analysis of tooth enamel

“…These values fall within the range that may be predicted for a diet dominated by C 3 terrestrial resources (between approximately −17.0 and −14.0 ‰; Froehle et al, 2012; Kellner & Schoeninger, 2007). The majority of human individuals sampled at both Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf have strontium concentrations comparable to those exhibited by the early Neolithic burial population at Hazleton North, where concentrations ranged between 22 and 144 ppm (mean 54 ± 25 ppm, n  = 35, Neil et al, 2016a). Strontium concentrations recorded at Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf are also close to the median value of 84 ppm ( n  = 614) reported by Evans et al (2012, pp.…”

“…759; mean 18.2 ‰ ± 1.0 ‰, 2σ) argue to be representative of occupation of western Britain where the site is located. At Hazleton North long cairn, also located in western Britain, conversion of δ 18 O carbonate values of second and third permanent molars gave a similar range of δ 18 O phosphate values (17.6 ‐ 18.9 ‰, mean 18.2 ± 0.4 ‰, n  = 20, 1σ; Neil et al, 2016a). In both cases, however, this comparison assumes that δ 18 O values in human enamel directly reflect geographical variation in the oxygen isotope composition of drinking waters and that values have not been significantly elevated as a result of culinary practice (e.g., Brettell et al, 2012b), or by consumption of fluids that have undergone fractionation through biological processes (e.g., cow's milk; Camin et al, 2008, pp.…”

“…310; Towers, Montgomery, Evans, Jay, & Parker Pearson, 2010, pp. 511; Viner et al, 2010; also see Neil et al 2016). Enamel samples from the later Neolithic cow tooth at Ty Isaf (dated to 2840–2470 cal BC; see below; Table 1) gave strontium concentrations of 126 and 155 ppm, consistent with those reported for later Neolithic cattle of similar date sampled at Durrington Walls, Wiltshire (Viner et al, 2010, pp.…”

“…At this site, several individuals exhibited a change in strontium isotope ratios from a value lower than 0.7085 to higher than 0.7105 between adjacent teeth. In southern Britain, with the possible exception of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, lithologies that routinely give measured biosphere 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values below 0.7085 are geographically separated from those that give values higher than 0.7105 and the shift between these two values can therefore be interpreted to indicate that individuals changed the location from which they obtained their diet during childhood (Evans et al, 2010; Neil, Evans, Montgomery, & Scarre, 2016a).…”

Stronger Together: Advancing a Global Bioarchaeology

“…Biogeochemical research once provided only an average of what a person consumed over many years based on bulk bone collagen values, although tissue and hair samples in well-preserved assemblages permitted a window into diet during shorter intervals much closer to the person's death (e.g., White and Schwarcz 1994). Stable isotopes of strontium and oxygen now go well beyond diet reconstruction and are used regularly to trace residential mobility and identify immigrants within a cemetery, providing further insight into life histories of individuals and social networks and population movements in the past (e.g., Bentley et al 2009;Killgrove and Montgomery 2016;Neil et al 2016;Parker Pearson et al 2016;Shaw et al 2015;Valentine 2016;Wright 2012). Stable isotope research is illuminating new aspects of urbanization, immigration, colonization, interaction, and identity (e.g., Buzon and Simonetti 2013;Knudson 2011;Knudson et al 2014).…”