Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:08:50.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Investigating population movement by stable isotope analysis: a report from Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul Budd
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Andrew Millard
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Carolyn Chenery
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Sam Lucy
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Charlotte Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

Extract

Stable isotopes present in local ground water get into people's teeth before they are 12 years old, and act as a signature to the area where they grew up (and drank the water). In a review of recent work in Britain the authors show the huge potential of this method for detecting population movement – and thus ultimately for investigating questions of migration, exogamy and slavery.

Type
Method
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, E., & Arwidsson, G. 1986. Fingerringe. In Arwidsson, G. (ed.): Birka II:2 Systematische Analysem der Gräberfunde. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Biddle, M., Blunt, C., Kjølbye-Biddle, B., Metcalf, M. & Pagan, H. 1986. Coins of the Anglo-Saxon period from Repton, Derbyshire: II. The British Numismatic Journal 56:1534.Google Scholar
Biddle, M., & Kjølbye-Biddle, B. 1992. Repton and the Vikings. Antiquity 66: 3651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biddle, M., & Kjølbye-Biddle, B. 2001. Repton and the ‘great heathen army’ 873–874. In Graham-Campbell, J., Hall, R., Jesch, J. & Parsons, D.N. (eds.): Vikings and the Danelaw. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Blum, J.D., Taliaferro, E.H., Weisse, M.T. & Holmes, R.T. 2000. Changes in Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca and 87Sr/ 86Sr ratios between two forest ecosystems in the northeastern U.S.A. Biogeochemistry 49:87101.Google Scholar
Bryant, J.D., & Froelich, P.N. 1996. Oxygen Isotope Composition of Human Tooth Enamel from Medieval Greenland: Linking Climate with Society: Comment. Geology 24:477478.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Chenery, C., Montgomery, J. & Evans, J. (2003a) You are where you ate. Isotopie analysis in the reconstruction of prehistoric residency. In Parker-Pearson, M. (ed.): Food, Identity and Culture in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. oxford: Archaeopress, BAR Int. Series 117: 6978.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Chenery, C., Montgomery, J., Evans, J. & Powlesland, D. 2003b. Anglo-Saxon residential mobility at West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, UK from combined O- and Sr-isotope analysis. In Tanner, S. and Holland, J.G. (eds.): Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: Applications and Emerging Technologies. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry: 195208.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Montgomery, J., Barreiro, B. & Thomas, R.G. 2000a. Differential diagenesis of strontium in archaeological human dental tissues. Applied Geochemistry 15:687694.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Montgomery, J., Evans, J. & Barreiro, B. 2000b. Human tooth enamel as a record of the comparative lead exposure of prehistoric and modern people. The Science of the Total Environment 263: 110.Google Scholar
Budd, P., Montgomery, J., Evans, J. & Chenery, C. 2001. Combined Pb-, Sr- and O-isotope analysis of human dental tissue for the reconstruction of archaeological residential mobility. In Holland, JG and Tanner, SD (eds.): Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: The New Millennium. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry Special Publication: 311326.Google Scholar
Capo, R.C., Stewart, B.W. & Chadwick, O.A. 1998. Strontium isotopes as tracers of ecosystems processes: theory and methods. Geoderma 82:197225.Google Scholar
Chiaradia, M., Gallay, A. & Todt, W. 2003. Different contamination styles of prehistoric human teeth at a Swiss necropolis (Sion, Valais) inferred from lead and strontium isotopes. Applied Geochemistry 18:353370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowling, S.A., Sykes, M.T. & Bradshaw, R. 2001. Palaeovegetation-model comparisons, climate change and tree succession in Scandinavia over the past 1500 years. Journal of Ecology 89:227236.Google Scholar
D’Angela, D. & Longinelli, A. 1990. Oxygen Isotopes in Living Mammal’s Bone Phosphate: Further Results. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geosciences Section) 86:7582.Google Scholar
Darling, W.G., Talbot, J.C. & Brownless, M.A. 1999. The stable isotopic content of rainfall and groundwaters in the British Isles. IAEA-SM–336/24P.Google Scholar
Darling, W.G., Bath, A.H. & Talbot, J.C. 2003a. The O & H stable isotopic composition of fresh waters in the British Isles: 2, surface waters and groundwater. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7: 183195.Google Scholar
Darling, W.G. & Talbot, J.C. 2003b. The O & H stable isotopic composition of fresh waters in the British Isles: 1, Rainfall. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7: 163181.Google Scholar
Ericson, J.E. 1985. Strontium Isotope Characterization in the Study of Prehistoric Human Ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14:503514.Google Scholar
Faure, G. 1986. Principles of Isotope Geology. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.Google Scholar
Haas, H.C. 1996. Northern Europe climate variation during the late Holocene: evidence from marine Skagerrak. Palaeogeoggraphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123:121145.Google Scholar
Haughton, C. & Powlesland, D. 1999. The West Heslerton Anglian Cemetery – Volume I. Yedingham, North Yorkshire: The Landscape Research Centre.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H. 1982. Climate History and the Modern World. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Levinson, A.A., Luz, B. & Kolodny, Y. 1987. Variations in Oxygen Isotope Compositions of Human Teeth and Urinary Stones. Applied Geochemistry 2:367371.Google Scholar
Longinelli, A. 1984. Oxygen Isotopes in Mammal Bone Phosphate: A New Tool for Paleohydrological and Paleoclimatological Research? Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48:385390.Google Scholar
Luz, B., Cormie, A.B. & Schwarcz, H.P. 1990. oxygen isotope variations in phosphate of deer bones. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 54:17231728.Google Scholar
Luz, B. & Kolodny, Y. 1985. Oxygen isotope variations in phosphate of biogenic apatites, IV Mammal bones and teeth. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 75:2936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luz, B., Kolodny, Y. & Horowitz, M. 1984. Fractionation of Oxygen Isotopes between Mammalian Bone-phosphate and Environmental Drinking Water. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48:16891693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, C.E. & McCulloch, M.T. 1999. Nd-Sr isotopic and trace element geochemistry of river sediments and soils in a fertilized catchment, New South Wales, Australia. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 63:285303.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Budd, P. & Evans, J. 2000. Reconstructing the lifetime movements of ancient people: a Neolithic case study from southern England. European Journal of Archaeology 3: 370385.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Burton, J.H. & Bentley, R.A. 2002. The characterisation of biologically available strontium isotope ratios for the study of prehistoric migration. Archaeometry 44:117135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, C.A. 1995. Treponematosis in Gloucester, England: A Theoretical and Practical Approach to the Pre-Columbian Theory: The Origin of Syphilis in Europe. Actes du Colloque International de Toulon: 101108.Google Scholar
Roesdhal, E. 1977. Fyrkat. En jysk Vikingeborg, II, Oldsagerne og gravpladsen. Copenhagen: Det kongelike nordiske Oldskriftselskat.Google Scholar
Sillen, A., Hall, G., Richardson, S. & Armstrong, R. 1998. 87Sr/86Sr ratios in modern and fossil food-webs of the Sterkfontein Valley: Implications for early hominid habitat preference. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 62:24632473.Google Scholar
Trickett, M., Budd, P., Montgomery, J. & Evans, J. 2003. An assessment of solubility profiling as a decontamination procedure for the 87Sr/86Sr analysis of archaeological human tissue. Applied Geochemistry 18:653658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, C.D., Spence, M.W., Stuart-Williams, H.L.Q. & Schwarcz, H.P. 1998. Oxygen isotopes and the identification of geographical origins: the Valley of Oaxaca versus the Valley of Mexico. Journal of Archaeological Science 25:643655.Google Scholar