‘There's No Place Like Home’—no Isotopic Evidence for Mobility at the Early Bronze Age Cemetery of Singen, Germany

Oelze, Vicky M.; Nehlich, Olaf; Richards, Michael P.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00644.x

Cited by 55 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 68 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…her gold spiral rings, garments and horn comb, do not explicitly suggest a nonlocal origin (S1 Text). This mirrors other European Bronze Age cemeteries, where grave goods do not reflect the origin of the individuals with whom they are buried [63,64]. Therefore, even though the Egtved and the Skrydstrup Women were both buried in burial mounds in present-day Denmark, in burial monuments which have long been considered to represent the resting places of the ancient local elites, strontium isotope results prove that these two Bronze Age Women originated from areas far away from where they were finally buried.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old “Skrydstrup Woman” from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections; consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical, biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17–18 years old when she died, and that she moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14 years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way movement of an elite female during the possible “age of marriageability” might suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction in prehistory.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 67%

A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This technological improvement has resulted in an increase in the use of sulphur stable isotope analyses for palaeodietary reconstruction, migration, and ecological research. For example, δ 34 S values have been used to distinguish between marine and terrestrial resource consumption, assess the interaction between terrestrial and estuarine environments, disentangle terrestrial, freshwater and marine resource contributions to diet in complex ecosystems, and to elucidate migration and residential proximity to the sea (inter alia, Arneson and MacAvoy, 2005;Craig et al, 2006;Howcroft et al, 2012;Nehlich, 2015;Nehlich et al, 2010Nehlich et al, , 2011Oelze et al, 2012aOelze et al, , 2012bPrivat et al, 2007;Richards et al, 2001Richards et al, , 2003Sayle et al, 2013;Valenzuela et al, 2011;Wilson et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sulphur-isotope compositions of pig tissues from a controlled feeding study

Webb

Newton

Lewis

et al. 2017

STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sulphur-isotope determinations are becoming increasingly useful for palaeodietary reconstruction, but knowledge of isotopic discrimination between diet and various tissues remains inadequate. In this study, we explore the sensitivity of δ 34 S tissue values to changes in δ 34S diet values, sulphur isotopic discrimination between diet and consumer, and the potential impact of terrestrial vs. marine protein consumption on these discrimination offsets. We present new δ 34 S values of bone collagen, muscle, liver, hair, milk and faeces from ten mature sows, ten piglets and fifteen adolescent pigs from a controlled feeding study. The δ 34S tissue values were found to co-vary with the δ 34 S diet values, the δ 34 S tissue -δ 34 S diet isotopic offsets (Δ 34 S tissue-diet ) are small but consistent, and dietary protein source does not systematically alter the Δ 34 S tissue-diet isotopic discrimination. The outcomes of this study are of particular relevance to questions that are difficult to resolve using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes alone, and will also be useful in regions where terrestrial, freshwater, and marine resources could have all potentially contributed to human diet. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

“…Sulphur can therefore help distinguish those close to a marine environment from those further inland. If the geological regions are isotopically different, it can also further discriminate between geographic origins (Oelze et al, 2012;Vika, 2009).…”

Section: Stable Isotopes Diet and Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet in Peru's pre-Hispanic central coast

Gerdau-Radonić

Goude

Mata

et al. 2015

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Tablada de Lurín cemetery Lima, Peru) is characterised by two mortuary phases. Based on associated grave finds and the lack of habitation sites near the cemetery, it has been hypothesised that both burial populations came from a certain distance of the site (ca. 20 km) and that they relied on land rather than marine resources. We tested these hypotheses, based on material culture, through stable isotope analysis. The aim was to understand the populations' diet and geographic origins. We sampled 47 human individuals and eleven sets of faunal remains from both phases for stable isotope analysis (carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen) of bone and dental collagen, and apatite. Modern samples of autochthonous food were also tested as a baseline for comparison. The results showed preservation differences between the remains from both phases. Individuals from Phase 1 provided the best isotopic dataset and showed consumption of protein from marine resources and C 4 plants. On the other hand, bioapatite carbon and oxygen stable isotope results from both phases highlighted differences in C 4 plant consumption and individuals of possible non-local origin. The results underline the need to study further the effect of brewed or cooked beverages on bioapatite oxygen levels. Finally, results from Phase 1 fit with the broader dietary pattern evident in other Andean sites, where coastal populations consumed marine protein and C 4 plants, as opposed to highland populations who relied on terrestrial protein sources and C 3 plants.

show abstract

‘There's No Place Like Home’—no Isotopic Evidence for Mobility at the Early Bronze Age Cemetery of Singen, Germany

Cited by 55 publications

References 68 publications

A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female

A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female

Sulphur-isotope compositions of pig tissues from a controlled feeding study

Diet in Peru's pre-Hispanic central coast

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About