Strontium isotopes and human mobility in prehistoric Denmark
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Strontium isotopes and human mobility in prehistoric Denmark Karin Margarita Frei & T. Douglas Price
Received: 18 May 2011 / Accepted: 8 December 2011 / Published online: 30 December 2011 # Springer-Verlag 2011
Abstract The principles behind the strontium isotopic system are an important tool for archaeologists tracing human migration and patterns of movement in prehistory. However, there are several scientific challenges of analytical nature, as well as those which relate to unknown parameters inherent to the interpretation of such data. One prerequisite is the knowledge of the range of strontium isotopic ratios that best characterize the bioavailable fractions of a particular area of interest. The study reported here attempts to establish a baseline for strontium isotope signatures valuable for Denmark (excluding the island of Bornholm) and particularly for the use in archaeological investigations. We present strontium isotope ratios of bones and teeth from modern mice contained in owl pellets, of snail shells, and of archaeological fauna samples. We compare these ratios with median strontium isotope signatures characterizing human enamel populations from archaeological sites within Denmark. The fauna samples reported here range from 87Sr/86Sr00.70717 to 0.71185 with an average of 0.70919, and human enamel defines a range from 87Sr/86Sr00.7086 to 0.7110 with an average of 0.7098. In both datasets, we observe a small difference between the baseline values for the western (Jutland) and eastern (Funen, Zealand, and the southern islands) parts of Denmark. We therefore propose two slightly different baseline ranges with K. M. Frei (*) The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR), Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 80, 2300, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] T. D. Price Department of Anthropology, Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1393, USA
a partial overlap for the isotopic signatures of bioavailable strontium fractions within Denmark, namely a range of 87 Sr/86Sr00.7078–0.7098 for the western area and a range of 87Sr/86Sr00.7089–0.7108 for the eastern parts. Keywords Bioavailable strontium . Archaeology . Isotope . Baseline . Fauna . Migration . Denmark
Introduction Strontium isotope studies aimed at deciphering the movement of prehistoric people and objects are becoming a standard part of the archaeologist's toolkit. Studies have been conducted on human remains from a wide range of past times and places demonstrating the utility of this method within archaeology. These studies come from, among others, archaeological sites belonging to the Anasazi period in Arizona (Ezzo et al. 1997), the Later Stone Age and the historic period in South Africa (Sealey et al. 1995, 1991), the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Bell Beaker periods in southern Germany (Grupe et al. 1997; Price et al. 2001, 1998, 1994), the Classic period of the highlands of Mexico (Price et al. 2000), the prehispanic period
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