Strontium and nitrogen isotopic evidence of food import to Tell Ashara–Terqa, a Bronze Age city on the Euphrates, Syria

Abstract

AbstractStrontium stable isotope values (87Sr/86Sr) have been measured in tooth enamel samples representing 11 Bronze Age individuals buried at Tell Ashara–Terqa, a major archaeological site in the middle Euphrates valley, eastern Syria. For all analysed individuals, δ15N and δ13C values for dentin collagen were also available. No 87Sr/86Sr value exceeds the local environmental range, so there is no evidence of long‐distance migration. Observed statistically significant negative correlation between 87Sr/86Sr and δ15N values suggests that some food consumed by the local population was imported from areas with a much higher precipitation (lower δ15N) and a different geological background (higher 87Sr/86Sr), which is consistent with textual evidence of cereal transportation from farming areas north to Tell Ashara.