Abstract
For a few decades archaeologists have been measuring 87Sr/86Sr in human teeth to explore human mobility, mostly by inferring that 87Sr/86Sr outliers represent individuals who immigrated into archaeological sites. Although the utility of the method is incontestable, the applications are beginning to outrun their theoretical foundations. Enormous efforts are currently being made to match specific isotope ratios with broad geographic regions, or “isoscapes,” connecting the underlying geology with the ratios in human teeth. However, a close examination of the distribution of 87Sr/86Sr reveals that there is enormous local variation in the geosphere, that biological ratios can differ significantly from those expected from the geology, that human ratios can vary according to diet, and that diet can include isotope inputs from beyond the place of birth. Thus a direct, empirical assessment of the human data can yield a more accurate “local” human value than can isoscape models. An appreciation of such details can help avoid erroneous inferences of mobility and yield more anthropologically nuanced results.
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Burton, J.H., Hahn, R. (2016). Assessing the “Local” 87Sr/86Sr Ratio for Humans. In: Grupe, G., McGlynn, G. (eds) Isotopic Landscapes in Bioarchaeology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48339-8_6
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