Tracing population mobility in the Aegean using isotope geochemistry: a first map of local biologically available 87Sr/ 86Sr signatures

Abstract

Strontium isotope ratio ( 87Sr/ 86Sr) analysis of archaeological human skeletal remains is an efficient method of investigating past population movement and residential mobility by determining probable geographical origins for the individuals examined. For this to be achieved, however, a map of biologically available 87Sr/ 86Sr signatures across the region investigated is needed. This paper presents a first such map for the Aegean, based on 87Sr/ 86Sr values recovered mainly from archaeological animal dental enamel and modern snail shells from sites largely distributed in the southern part of this region. Although not exhaustive, this comprehensive dataset of local biologically available 87Sr/ 86Sr signatures shows a marked difference between Mainland sites of the Pindos and Parnassos zones and the islands of south-eastern Aegean crossed by the Sub-Pelagonian zone (0.70808–0.70869), and sites in the central Cyclades and the north-eastern Aegean islands falling into the Attic-Cycladic metamorphic belt and the Vardar zone, respectively (0.70926–0.71187). Biologically available 87Sr/ 86Sr values from sites on central Euboea in the Pelagonian zone, south-eastern Attica and the western Cyclades in the Attic-Cycladic metamorphic belt, and on Crete in the Gavrovo zone are also relatively high (0.70853–0.70931), but lower than those recorded for the central Cyclades and the north-eastern Aegean.