Searching for Scandinavians in pre-Viking Scotland: molecular fingerprinting of Early Medieval combs

Holstein, Isabella C.C. von; Ashby, Steven P.; Doorn, Nienke L. van; Sachs, Stacie M.; Buckley, Michael; Meiri, Meirav; Barnes, Ian; Brundle, Anne; Collins, Matthew J.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.07.026

Cited by 75 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In NW Europe, the timing coincides with the start of the Viking Age of expansion into northern and western Europe. The cause and precise timing of this is contested2627, and our SU comp record provides a useful climatic context of colder Scandinavian climate and weaker westerly circulation for this important phase of early European history.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A composite annual-resolution stalagmite record of North Atlantic climate over the last three millennia

Baker¹,

Hellström

Kelly³

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

140

145

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Annually laminated stalagmites can be used to construct a precise chronology, and variations in laminae thickness provide an annual growth-rate record that can be used as a proxy for past climate and environmental change. Here, we present and analyse the first composite speleothem annual growth-rate record based on five stalagmites from the same cave system in northwest Scotland, where precipitation is sensitive to North Atlantic climate variability and the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Our 3000-year record confirms persistently low growth-rates, reflective of positive NAO states, during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). Another persistently low growth period occurring at 290-550 CE coincides with the European Migration Period, and a subsequent period of sustained fast growth-rate (negative NAO) from 600-900 AD provides the climate context for the Viking Age in northern and western Europe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A composite annual-resolution stalagmite record of North Atlantic climate over the last three millennia

Baker¹,

Hellström

Kelly³

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

140

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Although developed for archaeology, ZooMS has not been widely used until now for this purpose. The primary application has been to separate "ovicaprid" bones into sheep and goats (Buckley and Kansa 2011;Buckley et al 2010;Vaiglova et al 2014), but the method has now also been applied to sea mammal bones (Buckley et al 2014) and Viking combs (Von Holstein et al 2014). This is the first example of its application to a prehistoric artifact of uncertain raw material.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon and Protein Analyses Indicate an Early Holocene Age for the Osseous Rod from Grenfell, Saskatchewan, Canada

Ives¹,

Froese

Collins³

et al. 2014

Am. antiq.

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The Grenfell bone rod resembles other instances of Clovis-era organic or osseous technology and has on a number of occasions been considered with other Clovis bone, antler, and ivory rods or beveled artifacts. It had been suspected of being constructed from proboscidean long bone. As an early discovery (made in 1883), the Grenfell artifact had somewhat obscure provenience details and a lengthy curatorial history. We describe accelerator mass spectrometry and zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry methods that allow rapid, minimally destructive determinations of both the age and the raw material composition of osseous artifacts. Our analysis reveals that the Grenfell artifact is actually a terminal Paleoindian-era manifestation made of bison bone. Similar methods could be more widely applied in North America in order to build more refined data sets for osseous technologies. These results also reveal the ease with which archaeologists can secure additional information from existing collections, highlighting our ethical obligations to do so.

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“…Very small amounts of collagen are extracted, converted to gelatin and the gelatin enzymatically fragmented into small peptides. The masses of these peptides are determined by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and compared with known reference sequences (Buckley et al 2009(Buckley et al , 2010Buckley and Collins 2011;Kirby et al 2013;von Holstein et al 2014). Collagen is more robust than DNA, and ZooMS requires smaller samples than equivalent DNA sequencing analysis, so it was the preferred method here.…”

Section: Biomolecular Methods For Identifying Ivoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earliest Evidence for the Ivory Trade in Southern Africa: Isotopic and ZooMS Analysis of Seventh–Tenth Century ad Ivory from KwaZulu-Natal

et al. 2016

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KwaGandaganda, Ndondondwane and Wosi were major Early Farming Community settlements in what is today the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. These sites have yielded, among other remains, abundant evidence of ivory and ivory working dating to the seventh-tenth centuries AD, pre-dating by approximately 200 years the better-known ivory artefacts from sites in the Limpopo River Valley and surrounding regions. We report the results of carbon, nitrogen and strontium isotope analysis to explore the origins and procurement of this ivory, in combination with Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify the species of animals from which it was derived. All of the ivory studied using ZooMS was elephant, despite the presence of hippopotamus remains on all three sites. Some ivory was probably obtained from elephant herds that lived close to the sites, in the densely wooded river valleys favoured by both elephants and early farmers. Other material came from savannah environments further afield. Ivory found at these three sites was drawn from different catchments, implying a degree of landscape/resource partitioning even at this early stage. These communities clearly invested substantial effort in obtaining ivory from across the region, which speaks to the importance of this commodity in the economy of the time. We suggest that some ivory items were for local use, but that some may have been intended for more distant markets via Indian Ocean trade. Afr Archaeol Rev (2016) 33:411-435

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Searching for Scandinavians in pre-Viking Scotland: molecular fingerprinting of Early Medieval combs

Cited by 75 publications

References 21 publications

A composite annual-resolution stalagmite record of North Atlantic climate over the last three millennia

A composite annual-resolution stalagmite record of North Atlantic climate over the last three millennia

Radiocarbon and Protein Analyses Indicate an Early Holocene Age for the Osseous Rod from Grenfell, Saskatchewan, Canada

Earliest Evidence for the Ivory Trade in Southern Africa: Isotopic and ZooMS Analysis of Seventh–Tenth Century ad Ivory from KwaZulu-Natal

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