A summary of strontium and oxygen isotope variation in archaeological human tooth enamel excavated from Britain

Abstract

This paper presents a compilation of strontium and oxygen isotope data from human tooth enamel that has been produced at NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory over the last c.15 years. These many and often small studies are here combined to provide an overview of data from Britain. The strontium isotope composition ranges between 0.7078 and 0.7165 (excluding individuals deemed to be of non-British origin). The median Sr concentration is 84 ppm but there is a vector of increasing Sr concentrations related to seawater strontium isotope composition that is seen in individuals predominantly from the west coast of Scotland attributed to the used of kelp as a fertilizer. The oxygen isotope data is normally distributed with a mean value of 17.7‰ ± 1.4‰ (2SD n = 615). Two sub-populations of local individuals have been identified that provide control groups for human enamel values from the eastern side of Britain where there are lower rainfall levels: 17.2‰ ± 1.3‰, (2SD, n = 83) and western area of Britain where rainfall levels are higher = 18.2‰ ± 1‰, (2SD, n = 40). These data make it possible to make direct comparisons of population means between burial populations and the control dataset to assess commonality of origin.