scholarly journals Isotopic Evidence for Human Movement into Central England during the Early Neolithic

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-529
Author(s):  
Samantha Neil ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Isotopic Evidence ◽  
Northern France ◽  
Childhood Diet ◽  
Human Enamel

Isotope ratios of tooth enamel from ten Early Neolithic individuals buried in a long cairn at Whitwell in central England were measured to determine where they sourced their childhood diet. Five individuals have low Sr concentrations (11–66 ppm) and high 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.7164–0.7212). Three individuals have relatively low 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.712–0.711) and Sr concentrations ranging between 54 and 109 ppm. Two individuals have strontium isotope values that bridge the gap between the isotope compositions of these two groups. The high 87Sr/86Sr values are rare in human enamel and exclude sources within the biosphere of central England. Oxygen isotope values are comparable to those found within human archaeological populations buried in temperate regions of Europe. The strontium isotope results should be interpreted in the context of other evidence for migration from northern France to Britain during the Early Neolithic.

scholarly journals Isotopic Evidence for Landscape use and the Role of Causewayed Enclosures During the Earlier Neolithic in Southern Britain

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Neil ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
South West ◽  
Childhood Diet ◽  
Landscape Use ◽  
Strontium Isotope Ratios

The nature of landscape use and residence patterns during the British earlier Neolithic has often been debated. Here we use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel, from individuals buried at the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure monument complex in Dorset, England to evaluate patterns of landscape use during the earlier Neolithic. Previous analysis suggests that a significant proportion of the artefacts found at the site may originate from lithology of Eocene and Upper to Middle Jurassic age that the enclosures overlook to the immediate west and south. The excavators therefore argued that the sector of landscape visible from Hambledon Hill provides an approximate index for the catchment occupied by the communities that it served. Most of the burial population exhibit isotope ratios that could be consistent with this argument. Connections between Hambledon Hill and regions much further afield are also hypothesised, based on the presence of artefacts within the assemblage that could have been sourced from lithology in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall in south-west England. However, few of the sampled individuals have strontium isotope ratios consistent with having obtained the majority of their diet from such areas during childhood. The individuals who exhibit the highest strontium isotope ratios are all adult males, whom the excavators suggest to have died during one or more episodes of conflict, following the burning and destruction of surrounding defensive outworks built during the 36th centurybc. At least one of these individuals, who was found with an arrowhead amongst his ribs, did not obtain his childhood diet locally and has87Sr/86Sr values that could be comparable to those bioavailable in the south-west peninsula.

Isotopic evidence for mobility and group organization among Neolithic farmers at Talheim, Germany, 5000 BC

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 259-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
Joachim Wahl ◽  
R. Alexander Bentley
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Human Tooth ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Mass Grave ◽  
Rock Types ◽  
Strontium Isotope Ratios

The mass grave found near Talheim in southern Germany dates to approximately 7000 years ago and contains the skeletal remains of 34 individuals from the Early Neolithic period, associated with what is known as the Linearbandkeramik culture. These individuals appear to have been the victims of a massacre, based on the presence of numerous lethal head wounds, several arrow wounds, and the placement of all of these individuals in the same burial pit. The burials are considered to likely represent members of the same community attacked and executed by another group. In this study we examine the remains from the mass grave at Talheim for information on migration and community structure using strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel. In essence, strontium isotope ratios are signatures of different rock types. The food chain moves these atoms into the human skeleton from bedrock through water, soils, plants, and herbivores. Because human tooth enamel does not change after formation, it provides a stored signal of the strontium isotopes of the place of birth. If the strontium isotope ratio of the place of death is different, the individual under study must have moved from one geology to another during his or her lifetime. Isotopic provenancing shows that several of the individuals in the group at Talheim were born in a different geological location. We discuss the results of the analysis and its significance in terms of questions of migration and community structure in the Early Neolithic of prehistoric Europe.

Hadrosaurid migration: inferences based on stable isotope comparisons among Late Cretaceous dinosaur localities

Paleobiology ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry C. Fricke ◽  
Raymond R. Rogers ◽  
Terry A. Gates
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Isotopic Signatures ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios ◽  
Drinking Waters ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Western Interior Basin ◽  
Major Alteration

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were measured for carbonate in samples of hadrosaurid tooth enamel and dentine, and gar scale ganoine and dentine from five geologically “contemporaneous“ (two-million-year resolution) and geographically distant late Campanian formations (Two Medicine, Dinosaur Park, Judith River, Kaiparowits, and Fruitland) in the Western Interior Basin. In all cases, isotopic offsets were observed between enamel and dentine from the same teeth, with dentine being characterized by higher and more variable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios. Isotopic offsets were also observed between gar ganoine and hadrosaur enamel in all sites analyzed. Both of these observations indicate that diagenetic overprinting of enamel isotope ratios did not entirely obfuscate primary signals. Decreases in carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were observed in hadrosaur enamel from east to west, and overlap in isotope ratios occurred only between two of the sampled sites (Dinosaur Park and Judith River Formations).The lack of isotopic overlap for enamel among localities could be due to diagenetic resetting of isotope ratios such that they reflect local groundwater effects rather than primary biogenic inputs. However, the large range in carbon isotope ratios, the consistent taxonomic offsets for enamel/ganoine data, and comparisons of enamel-dentine data from the same teeth all suggest that diagenesis is not the lone driver of the signal. In the absence of major alteration, the mostly likely explanation for the isotopic patterns observed is that hadrosaurids from the targeted formations were eating plants and drinking waters with distinct isotopic ratios. One implication of this reconstruction is that hadrosaurids in the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior did not migrate to an extent that would obscure local isotopic signatures.

Stable isotope evidence for changes in dietary niche partitioning among hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota

Paleobiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry C. Fricke ◽  
Dean A. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Dietary Niche ◽  
Ceratopsian Dinosaurs

Questions related to dinosaur behavior can be difficult to answer conclusively by using morphological studies alone. As a complement to these approaches, carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of tooth enamel can provide insight into habitat and dietary preferences of herbivorous dinosaurs. This approach is based on the isotopic variability in plant material and in surface waters of the past, which is in turn reflected by carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of animals that ingested the organic matter or drank the water. Thus, it has the potential to identify and characterize dietary and habitat preferences for coexisting taxa.In this study, stable isotope ratios from coexisting hadrosaurian and ceratopsian dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota are compared for four different stratigraphic levels. Isotopic offsets between tooth enamel and tooth dentine, as well as taxonomic differences in means and in patterns of isotopic data among taxa, indicate that primary paleoecological information is preserved. The existence of taxonomic offsets also provides the first direct evidence for dietary niche partitioning among these herbivorous dinosaur taxa. Of particular interest is the observation that the nature of this partitioning changes over time: for some localities ceratopsian dinosaurs have higher carbon and oxygen isotope ratios than hadrosaurs, indicating a preference for plants living in open settings near the coast, whereas for other localities isotope ratios are lower, indicating a preference for plants in the understory of forests. In most cases the isotope ratios among hadrosaurs are similar and are interpreted to represent a dietary preference for plants of the forest canopy. The inferred differences in ceratopsian behavior are suggested to represent a change in vegetation cover and hence habitat availability in response to sea level change or to the position of river distributaries. Given our current lack of taxonomic resolution, it is not possible to determine if dietary and habitat preferences inferred from stable isotope data are associated with single, or multiple, species of hadrosaurian/ceratopsian dinosaurs.

Strontium isotope ratios (87 Sr/86 Sr) of tooth enamel: a comparison of solution and laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry methods

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (20) ◽  
pp. 3187-3194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandi R. Copeland ◽  
Matt Sponheimer ◽  
Petrus J. le Roux ◽  
Vaughan Grimes ◽  
Julia A. Lee-Thorp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Laser Ablation ◽  
Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Inductively Coupled ◽  
Plasma Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Strontium Isotope Ratios

THE TEMPLE OF QUETZALCOATL, TEOTIHUACAN: NEW DATA ON THE ORIGINS OF THE SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
Michael W. Spence ◽  
Fred J. Longstaffe
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotopes ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Carbon Isotope Ratios ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios ◽  
Childhood Diet ◽  
Isotopic Proveniencing ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Teotihuacan Mexico

Abstract Continuing isotopic investigation of the sacrificial burials and trophies beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (Temple of Quetzalcoatl) in ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico, has produced new results. Isotopic proveniencing using bioapatite strontium and structural carbonate oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel was applied to 39 samples, 24 from the sacrificial victims and 15 from the trophy jaws. Both the strontium and oxygen isotope ratios suggest that most or all of the sacrificial victims came from the central highlands of Mexico, which includes the area of Teotihuacan. In this sense, we find somewhat less multiethnicity represented among the military at Teotihuacan than previously thought. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios in enamel structural carbonate indicated a childhood diet dominated by maize, relatively homogeneous among the victims at the pyramid, and typical for much of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

USING OXYGEN, CARBON AND STRONTIUM ISOTOPE RATIOS OF TOOTH ENAMEL FROM DINOSAURS TO INFER PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT OVER THE LATE JURASSIC LANDSCAPE OF CO, UT AND WY

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla Marie Bronzo ◽  
◽  
Henry Fricke ◽  
Marie Elizebeth Hoerner ◽  
John R. Foster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Strontium Isotope Ratios

RESIDENTIAL HISTORIES OF THE HUMAN SACRIFICES AT THE MOON PYRAMID, TEOTIHUACAN

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine D. White ◽  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
Fred J. Longstaffe
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios

AbstractTo investigate geographic origins of the sacrificial Burials 2–5 from the Moon Pyramid at Teotihuacan and to reconstruct changes in residence since their childhoods, we analyzed tooth enamel for oxygen- and strontium-isotope ratios and bone just for oxygen-isotope ratios. The combination of these analytical techniques involves both climatic and geological variables, therefore enhancing resolution of geographic identification. Most of the sacrificed individuals appear to have been born in a foreign location. These regions probably include other areas within the Basin of Mexico and the central highlands, as well as the Gulf Coast and the Sierra Madre del Sur. Other possible regions of origin are the southern highlands, the Motagua Valley, and the Maya Lowlands. There is considerable overlap in the oxygen-isotope ratios between the Moon Pyramid and Feathered Serpent Pyramid victims, but each structure contains a group of isotopically distinct individuals. The Moon Pyramid sacrifices include some individuals with high oxygen-isotope ratios, possibly indicating the Gulf Coast or Maya Lowlands, whereas the Feathered Serpent Pyramid contains a distinct group with very low oxygen-isotope ratios, possibly indicating Oaxaca, Michoacan, or the coastal plain and piedmont of Guatemala. The sacrifices in the two pyramids also differ in their patterns of movement. Most of the Moon Pyramid victims appear to have arrived in the city recently, but the majority of those from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid had lived in Teotihuacan for a long time before their death.

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