Human enamel 87Sr/86Sr evidence of migration and land use patterns at Tell Brak, a Late Chalcolithic urban centre in NE Syria

Abstract

During the Late Chalcolithic 3/4 (c. 3900–3200 BCE), Tell Brak in NE Syria became a large urban centre with central administration, craft specialization and a settlement size of at least 130 ha. 87Sr/86Sr values in enamel of 34 human individuals from Tell Brak representing four temporal subsets were measured and compared against the local background to understand the pattern of migrations and origin of food consumed by inhabitants of the city. The rate of migration from areas with different 87Sr/86Sr background values was constantly low, and there is no evidence of long-distance mobility. Decrease of average 87Sr/86Sr values with time was paralleled by their higher dispersal. Finally, in the last subset representing the end of first urbanization period data are again less variable. All this indicates a rise in spatial heterogeneity of resources to feed the growing population of the expanding city, which was likely caused by a gradual extension of land used for food production.