Abstract
As a means for investigating human mobility during late the Neolithic to the Copper Age in central and southern Italy, this study presents a novel dataset of enamel oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18Oca and δ13Cca) from the carbonate fraction of biogenic apatite for one hundred and twenty-six individual teeth coming from two Neolithic and eight Copper Age communities. The measured δ18Oca values suggest a significant role of local sources in the water inputs to the body water, whereas δ13Cca values indicate food resources, principally based on C3 plants. Both δ13Cca and δ18Oca ranges vary substantially when samples are broken down into local populations. Statistically defined thresholds, accounting for intra-site variability, allow the identification of only a few outliers in the eight Copper Age communities, suggesting that sedentary lifestyle rather than extensive mobility characterized the investigated populations. This seems to be also typical of the two studied Neolithic communities. Overall, this research shows that the investigated periods in peninsular Italy differed in mobility pattern from the following Bronze Age communities from more northern areas.
Highlights
As a means for investigating human mobility during late the Neolithic to the Copper Age in central and southern Italy, this study presents a novel dataset of enamel oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18Oca and δ13Cca) from the carbonate fraction of biogenic apatite for one hundred and twenty-six individual teeth coming from two Neolithic and eight Copper Age communities
This paper aims at providing a new set of human tooth oxygen and carbon isotope measurements from Neolithic (Mora Cavorso, MC, and Galliano Palagiano, PA) and Copper Age (Buca di Spaccasasso, SS, Fontenoce di Recanati, FR, Celano Pratovecchio, CE, Osteria del Curato-Via Cinquefrondi, OC, Casetta Mistici, CM, Torre della Chiesaccia, TC, Pantano Borghese, PB, Grotta Nisco, GN) settlements/funerary areas (Table 1, Supplementary Figure S1)[26]
Oxygen isotope values (δ18Oca reported vs. V-SMOW69) and carbon isotope values (δ13Cca vs. V-PDB) were measured in the carbonate fraction of tooth enamel apatite of 126 individuals pertaining to 10 funerary contexts in central and southern Italy (Table S3)
Summary
As a means for investigating human mobility during late the Neolithic to the Copper Age in central and southern Italy, this study presents a novel dataset of enamel oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18Oca and δ13Cca) from the carbonate fraction of biogenic apatite for one hundred and twenty-six individual teeth coming from two Neolithic and eight Copper Age communities. The measured δ18Oca values suggest a significant role of local sources in the water inputs to the body water, whereas δ13Cca values indicate food resources, principally based on C3 plants. Both δ13Cca and δ18Oca ranges vary substantially when samples are broken down into local populations. Defined thresholds, accounting for intra-site variability, allow the identification of only a few outliers in the eight Copper Age communities, suggesting that sedentary lifestyle rather than extensive mobility characterized the investigated populations. This seems to be typical of the two studied Neolithic communities. Even though mobility could have been a critical element of foragers’ strategies for resource e xploitation[4,5], it could underlie other fundamental factors, such as social complexity and population dynamics
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