Scale of human mobility in the southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A new framework based on strontium isotopes

Barberena, Ramiro; Durán, Víctor; Novellino, Paula; Winocur, Diego; Benítez, Anahí; Tessone, Augusto; Quiroga, María Nella; Marsh, Erik J.; Gasco, Alejandra; Cortegoso, Valeria; Ferreyra, Gustavo A.; Llano, Carina; Knudson, Kelly J.

doi:10.1002/ajpa.23270

Cited by 31 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The proportion of these different sources varies across the landscape, and is best understood by localized, multi-source mixing models (Montgomery et al, 2007;Bataille et al, , 2018Bataille et al, , 2020Willmes et al, 2018). In the Andes, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr baseline data from plants, fauna, and water are relatively limited compared to other world regions (but see Barberena et al, 2017Barberena et al, , 2019. Expectations for catchment 87 Sr/ 86 Sr are primarily derived from models based on bedrock outcroppings.…”

Section: Strontium Isotopes In the Andes: From Dietary Catchments To mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To that end, efforts are currently underway to develop local baseline models from environmental reference materials in discrete parts of the Andes, by a variety of research teams (e.g., Barberena et al, 2017;Barberena et al, 2019, inter alia;Serna et al, 2020). However, these efforts are largely localized to sub-regions of the Andes and constrained to sampling locations near targeted archeological sites.…”

Section: Strontium Isotopes In the Andes: From Dietary Catchments To mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

et al. 2020

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The analysis of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr has become a robust tool for identifying non-local individuals at archeological sites. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in human bioapatite reflects the geological signature of food and water consumed during tissue development. Modeling relationships between 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in human environments, food webs, and archeological human tissues is critical for moving from identifying non-locals to determining their likely provenience. In the Andes, obstacles to sample geolocation include overlapping 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of distant geographies and a poor understanding of mixed strontium sources in food and drink. Here, water is investigated as a proxy for bioavailable strontium in archeological human skeletal and dental tissues. This study develops a water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape from 262 samples (220 new and 42 published samples), testing the model with published archeological human skeletal 87 Sr/ 86 Sr trimmed of probable non-locals. Water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and prediction error between the predicted and measured 87 Sr/ 86 Sr for the archeological test set are compared by elevation, underlying geology, and watershed size. Across the Peruvian Andes, water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ranges from 0.7049 to 0.7227 (M = 0.7081, SD = 0.0027). Water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr is higher in the highlands, in areas overlying older bedrock, and in larger watersheds, characteristics which are geographically correlated. Spatial outliers identified are from canals, wells, and one stream, suggesting those sources could show non-representative 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. The best-fit water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape achieves prediction errors for archeological samples ranging from 0.0017-0.0031 (M = 0.0012, n = 493). The water isoscape explains only 7.0% of the variation in archeological skeletal 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (R 2 = 0.07), but 90.0% of archeological skeleton 87 Sr/ 86 Sr fall within the site isoscape prediction ± site prediction standard error. Due to lower sampling density and higher geological variability in the highlands, the water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape is more useful for ruling out geographic origins for lowland

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Section: Strontium Isotopes In the Andes: From Dietary Catchments To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strontium Isotopes In the Andes: From Dietary Catchments To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

et al. 2020

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“…Oxygen is a complex isotopic tracer, not just for its fractionation inside of the human body, but because the kind of baselines that we use impacts directly on the archaeological inferences (Knudson, 2009;Scherer et al, 2015; see also discussion in Barberena et al, 2017). The assumption that δ 18 O pp is an isotopic mirror of δ 18 O tsw has a significant archaeological implication, because it could lead to an overestimation of "non-locals" in provenance studies (e.g.…”

Section: Terrestrial Surface Water In Central-eastern North Patagoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From that time onward, δ 18 O values have been increasingly used to assess paleomobility in archaeology (e.g. White et al, 1998;Dupras and Schwarcz, 2001;Knudson et al, 2009;Buzon et al, 2011;Gil et al, 2011;Ugan et al, 2012;Pellegrini et al, 2016;Barberena et al, 2017;Gregoricka et al, 2017). Nevertheless, there is no agreement about which kind baseline is the most suitable to assess mobility patterns (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back to the bases: Building a terrestrial water δ18O baseline for archaeological studies in North Patagonia (Argentina)

Serna

Prates

Valenzuela

et al. 2020

Quaternary International

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Archaeology has been using stable oxygen as an isotopic tracer linked with water consumption for decades, and it has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to assess paleomobility in bioarchaeology. Central-eastern North Patagonia (Argentina) is an especially appropriate region to apply it since it presents a high density of huntergatherer burials, it was a nodal zone criss-crossed by an extensive network of important routes, and it is characterized by a high environmental fragmentation due to the scarcity of fresh water sources. The aim of this paper is to build an empirical stable oxygen isotope baseline of terrestrial surface waters to assess the potentiality of tracing past human movement. We analyzed 46 water samples from 13 locations with permanent sources (rivers, springs, streams), compared it with predictions of precipitation and evaluated it considering seasonal variation, altitude and distance from the coast. Our results show that different post-precipitation processes change the isotopic signal from the sources with respect to the local precipitation, and highlight the relevance of analyzing terrestrial water sources. According to their oxygen isotope values we defined five hydrologic zones: Colorado River, Negro River, Closed Basins and Plains, Eastern and Western Somuncurá Foothills. Their identification shows the potential to address past human movement using stable oxygen water baselines in central-eastern North Patagonia.

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“…This mobile strategy of different human societies is well documented worldwide. Many studies explored a range of features, such as archaeological evidences [19,20], socioeconomic characterisations [21][22][23], traditional ecological knowledge of these pastoral communities [24][25][26][27][28], biophysical variability, pastoral rights and access to resources [29,30], migratory routes, landscape connectivity and transhumant networks [18,[31][32][33][34], challenges and future scenarios of global or regional change [12,[35][36][37][38][39]. With respect to methodologies aimed at estimating spatial and temporal dimensions of pastoral mobility, recent studies have focused on tracking migratory roads [31], characterising movements and connectivity networks between fragmented pasturelands [18,32], and simulating movements according to varying fodder supply [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework to Tackling the Synchrony between Social and Ecological Phases of the Annual Cyclic Movement of Transhumant Pastoralism

2020

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Transhumant pastoralism is mobile livelihood strategy in which families and their herds move seasonally from lowlands, where they settle during the winter, towards the highlands, located in mountainous areas, during the summer. We propose a framework, rooted in a socio-environmental coevolutionary perspective, for the transhumant annual cycle as comprised by the winter-phase, the summer-phase, and movement transitions between them. The aim was to assess the level of synchrony between ecological phases and social phases and the benefit of moving between pasturelands in selected study cases from Patagonia, Argentina. Ecological phases were addressed by the difference between vegetation productivity of winter- and summer-lands, with Fourier transform applied to data series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Social phases were estimated by the proportion of annual time spent by pastoralists and their herds in each site and during transitions, respectively, obtained from interviews. The framework was sensitive to capturing differences across study cases. There was an observed tendency towards more synchronisation in the cases with closer distances and asynchrony in the cases with longer distances and longer movement transitions between pasturelands. Results are encouraging as a step towards the development of a monitoring system of both transhumant pastoralism activity and environmental changes.

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Scale of human mobility in the southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A new framework based on strontium isotopes

Cited by 31 publications

References 63 publications

Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

Back to the bases: Building a terrestrial water δ18O baseline for archaeological studies in North Patagonia (Argentina)

A Framework to Tackling the Synchrony between Social and Ecological Phases of the Annual Cyclic Movement of Transhumant Pastoralism

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