Abstract
In this study a methodology for identifying the geographic origin of unidentified persons, their residence and moving patterns while providing information on lifestyle, diet and socio-economic status by combining stable isotopic data, with the biological information (isotopic composition of the skeleton), is presented. This is accomplished by comparing the oxygen isotopic composition of the spring water that individuals were drinking, during their living period, with the oxygen isotopic composition of their tooth enamel bioapatite. Spring water and teeth samples were collected from individuals from three different areas of Greece: North Greece, Central Greece and South Greece and isotopic analysis of δ13C and δ18O of tooth enamel bioapatite and δ18O of spring water were conducted. For these three areas the isotopic methodology is a promising tool for discriminating the provenance. Furthermore, as a case study, this methodology is applied to two archeological sites of Greece (Medieval-Thebes and Roman-Edessa) in order to determine paleomobility patterns.
Highlights
In this study a methodology for identifying the geographic origin of unidentified persons, their residence and moving patterns while providing information on lifestyle, diet and socio-economic status by combining stable isotopic data, with the biological information, is presented
The stable isotopic composition of human tissue (C, N, H, O) will not match exactly that of the consumed food and water as various fractionation processes take place: These processes originate from the different properties of the isotopes in term of thermodynamics and kinetics and from all the different metabolic reactions that the food undergoes during consumption[28]
The hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of 75 spring waters (Table 1) were determined in order to provide the relation between δ18O of water (δ18Ow vs SMOW) and of tooth enamel bioapatite (δ18Oen vs PDB) of known human’s samples
Summary
In this study a methodology for identifying the geographic origin of unidentified persons, their residence and moving patterns while providing information on lifestyle, diet and socio-economic status by combining stable isotopic data, with the biological information (isotopic composition of the skeleton), is presented This is accomplished by comparing the oxygen isotopic composition of the spring water that individuals were drinking, during their living period, with the oxygen isotopic composition of their tooth enamel bioapatite. The isotopic ratios δ2H or δ18O of fresh water varies across the earth as it is affected by Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:15439
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