Constraining a bioavailable strontium isotope baseline for the Lake Garda region, Northern Italy: A multi-proxy approach

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Pernille Ladegaard-Pedersen
  • Frei, Robert
  • Anja B. Frank
  • Massimo Saracino
  • Roberto Zorzin
  • Nicoletta Martinelli
  • Flemming Kaul
  • Kristian Kristiansen
  • Karin M. Frei

The evidence of prehistoric long-distance exchange networks in northern Italy is overwhelming, attested by several finds of non-local raw materials in Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlements of Lake Garda and eastern Po plain, like amber beads and bronze artefacts. Metals are dispersed throughout Bronze Age Europe from mining communities within the Alpine regions, and possibly local artefacts, like the Peschiera-type daggers, are known from archaeological records throughout Europe. This positions the region as part of organized networks of trade and communication connecting prehistoric Europe from north to south. This, however, does not in itself indicate a similar long-distance mobility of prehistoric individuals. To investigate individual, human provenance and mobility, the strontium (Sr) isotope methodology compares strontium isotope analysis of human remains to bioavailable strontium isotope baselines characterizing the regions of interest. We present here environmentally based, multi-proxy (water, soil leachates and plants) Sr baselines from the Lake Garda region. Our results show two separate baselines, roughly corresponding to the geographical distribution of rock types and erosional products thereof. One baseline is valid for the Lake Garda region, where Mesozoic carbonates are a dominant surface-near strontium source, and for the central Po plain north of River Po. We constrain this to 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7088 ± 0.0014 (2σ; n = 44) when including 9 compatible samples reported previously. The second Sr-baseline is valid for Alpine areas dominated by magmatic (basalts excluded) and metamorphic bedrock around the Fersina valley. We constrain this to 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7146 ± 0.0058 (2σ; n = 22) when including 11 compatible samples reported in previous studies. The baselines are compatible with previously reported results of other Sr proxies such as snails, archaeological fauna, and agricultural soils and products from the region.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer103339
TidsskriftJournal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Vol/bind41
Antal sider15
ISSN2352-409X
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022

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