scholarly journals Spatially resolved LA-MC-ICPMS strontium isotope microanalysis of archaeological fauna

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Moffat ◽  
Chris Stringer ◽  
Rainer Grün
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Isotope Composition ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Geographic Origins ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Strontium Isotope Composition

The analysis of the strontium isotope composition of archaeological materials can provide important information about the mobility of a range of mammals, including humans. The basis of this method is that, prior to any postburial diagenesis, the Sr87/Sr86 ratio of bone and teeth reflects the geological environment from which food and water were sourced while these biominerals were forming. Teeth are particularly amenable to tracing the geographic origins of humans as they mineralize during the first 12–13 years of life (White and Folkens, 2005) and do not subsequently change strontium composition after this time (Schweissing and Grupe, 2003). Strontium isotope analysis can be used to determine if individuals are local or nonlocal by comparison to the isotopic composition in and around their burial location (i.e., Schweissing and Grupe, 2000; Bentley et al., 2007; Conlee et al., 2009). In order to quantify the extent of faunal mobility, the strontium isotope composition of biominerals from fossil samples needs to be compared with a regional map of values obtained either from local faunal material (Price et al., 2002) or from analysis of the bioavailable component of strontium from plants, regolith, or bedrock (Capo et al., 1998).Strontium isotope analysis has been extensively applied to the determination of archaeological mobility, as reviewed by Price et al. (2002), Budd et al. (2004), Bentley (2006), and Montgomery (2010). Although studies of Paleolithic or older archeological material are rare, some have been undertaken on hominins (Sillen et al., 1995, 1998; Richards et al., 2008; Copeland et al., 2011) and faunal material (Horn et al., 1994; Copeland et al., 2010; Britton et al., 2011).Enamel has been shown to be the most favorable material for strontium isotope analysis based on its ability to resist postburial alteration far better than dentine, cement, or bone (Trickett et al., 2003). Enamel of some species grows over extended periods and, when analyzed with microprofiling or laser ablation analysis, can be used to reconstruct comprehensive life histories. This approach demonstrated the seasonal mobility of cattle in Iron Age Britain (Horstwood et al., 2008), Neolithic Germany (Bentley and Knipper, 2005), and England (Viner et al., 2010).

scholarly journals Spatially Resolved Strontium Isotope Micro-Analysis of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Fauna from Archaeological Sites in Israel and Southern France

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Moffat
Keyword(s):  
Laser Ablation ◽  
Wild Boar ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Fallow Deer ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Micro Analysis

The use of strontium isotope analysis to provenance biominerals such as bone and teeth has become a regularly applied component of archaeological research. This method works by comparing the isotopic composition of these materials with regional bioavailable soil values, allowing an estimation of the distance and vector of an individual’s mobility. New advances in analytical equipment has facilitated the spatially resolved micro-analysis of strontium isotope composition using laser ablation sampling, allowing intra-sample heterogeneity to be quantified. This provides the opportunity to determine not only the overall provenance of a material, but also the degree of mobility during biomineral formation.This research applies laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA-MC-ICPMS) to 90 teeth of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic faunal prey from Lower and Middle Palaeolithic archaeological sites within Israel and France. These sites span a crucial period in human evolution, characterised by the radiation of multiple hominin species and by dynamic oscillations of climate with attendant changes in fauna and flora. The strontium isotope values from LA-MC-ICPMS analysis in this thesis show a high level of intra-sample variability, which would not have been captured by a traditional analytical methodology. This suggests that, despite some problems in obtaining accurate results due to offsets between solution and laser values, strontium isotope studies that do not utilise spatially resolved micro-analysis are unable to accurately determine mobility.The results of this research demonstrate that fauna from the archaeological sites of interest—including Amud, Qafzeh, Tabun, Skhull, Holon, Bois Roche, Le Moustier, La Chapelle-aux-Saints, Les Fieux, Pech de l’Azé II and Rescoundudou—appear to have patterns of mobility that are controled by variables such as species, marine isotope stages (MIS) and regional physiography. Specifically, Persian fallow deer, bison, mountain goat/chamois and fox are frequently mobile between different geological environments during amelogenesis while wild boar and rhinoceros are sessile. The calculated range of distance for minimum possible mobility for each sample is large, ranging from 0 km to 350 km. The median values for minimum possible mobility for each species suggest that wild boar, bison and fox are mobile over the greatest distance while Bos, rhinoceros, Persian fallow deer and unidentified deer are mobile over the least. Furthermore, fauna in MIS 4 and 3 are significantly more mobile than in MIS 6 and 5. Fauna from France are more mobile than those from Israel, which is attributed to the location of the archaeological sites adjacent to significant river systems that could serve as conduits of mobility, even during inhospitable climate periods. Overall, these insights show that strontium isotope analysis can be usefully applied to quantifying mobility on a broad temporal and geographic scale, rather than simply being used, as is typical, for locating the source of material within a specific archaeological site.

scholarly journals Detecting Mobility in Early Iron Age Thessaly by Strontium Isotope Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Panagiotopoulou ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Geoff Nowell ◽  
Joanne Peterkin ◽  
Argiro Doulgeri-Intzesiloglou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Non Local

This article presents evidence of population movements in Thessaly, Greece, during the Early Iron Age (Protogeometric period, eleventh–ninth centuriesbc). The method we employed to detect non-local individuals is strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel integrated with the contextual analysis of mortuary practices and osteological analysis of the skeletal assemblage. During the Protogeometric period, social and cultural transformations occurred while society was recovering from the disintegration of the Mycenaean civilization (twelfth centurybc). The analysis of the cemeteries of Voulokaliva, Chloe, and Pharsala, located in southern Thessaly, showed that non-local individuals integrated in the communities we focused on and contributed to the observed diversity in burial practices and to the developments in the formation of a social organization.

scholarly journals Source of strontium in archaeological mobility studies—marine diet contribution to the isotopic composition

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Lahtinen ◽  
Laura Arppe ◽  
Geoff Nowell
Keyword(s):  
Isotope Composition ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Dietary History ◽  
Mobility Studies ◽  
Solid Diet ◽  
Diet Versus ◽  
Strontium Isotope Composition

AbstractThe strontium isotope composition of human tissues is widely used in archaeological mobility studies. However, little attention is paid to the relative contributions of terrestrial versus marine sources of strontium in these studies. There is some debate over the role of a solid diet versus drinking water as the most important source of strontium for the human body, with related possibilities of misinterpretation of the archaeological record if only strontium isotope compositions of the biosphere are studied. However, there is a third component, marine strontium, which is commonly not assumed to contribute towards the strontium isotope composition of archaeological skeletal remains, especially in locations that are not directly coastal. To illustrate the potentially obfuscating effects of mixed Sr sources in a human population, we present a case study of twelve individuals from the medieval Finnish site Iin Hamina with a known dietary history. Our study shows that marine consumption is a significant factor explaining the strontium isotope composition of the Iin Hamina human remains, with implication of erroneous conclusions about immigration without prior knowledge of diet composition. Thus, future studies should always incorporate a rigorous analysis of dietary history, with special regard to potential consumption of aquatic resources, when strontium isotope analysis is used as a method in the study of palaeomobility.

Mobility and diet in Prehistoric Denmark: strontium isotope analysis and incremental stable isotope analysis of human remains from the Limfjord area

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
LG Van der Sluis ◽  
JS Daly ◽  
KM Frei ◽  
PJ Reimer
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Stable Isotope Analysis ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
Non Local

The Limfjord in Denmark held a prominent position throughout Prehistory as a natural communication port between east and west. Identifying the presence of non-local individuals might shed light on socio-economic and cultural changes occurring in the Limfjord area. Existing studies attempting to do so using strontium isotope analysis on Danish prehistoric remains focus on certain archaeological time periods and geographic locations, resulting in an uneven distribution of analysed material. This study aimed at filling a gap in the existing literature, both from a geographical as well as a chronological point of view. Additionally, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis on bone and tooth dentine from these individuals was carried out to examine dietary changes between childhood and adulthood. The strontium isotope results revealed four non-local individuals, two from the Neolithic, one from the Early Roman Iron Age and one from the Germanic Iron/Viking Age. We conducted incremental stable isotope analysis of tooth dentine from the four non-local individuals to investigate the palaeodietary information in their dental records at a higher resolution and potentially pinpoint their age at the time of movement. The two Neolithic individuals revealed stable isotope ratios that might be indicative of stress.

scholarly journals The four horses of an Iron Age apocalypse: war-horses from the third-century weapon sacrifice at Illerup Aadal (Denmark)

Antiquity ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (339) ◽  
pp. 191-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres S. Dobat ◽  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
Jacob Kveiborg ◽  
Jørgen Ilkjær ◽  
Peter Rowley-Conwy
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Material World ◽  
Strontium Isotope Analysis ◽  
The Third

The Illerup Aadal weapon sacrifice mirrors the material world of a Germanic army from c. AD 210. Apart from the personal equipment and the weaponry of more than 400 warriors, it comprises four horses. The present paper gives the first conclusive analysis of the skeletal remains of these animals, involving osteological investigation and strontium isotope analysis. The results shed new light on the character of the sacrificial ceremonies which unfolded in the aftermath of Iron Age battles; on the nature of cavalry and its significance in Iron Age warfare; and on the much debated question as to where the army of Illerup Aadal had originally come from.

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