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Rickards, Olga
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Rickards, Olga
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- PublicationRestrictedSr isotopic composition as a tool for unraveling human mobility in the Campania area(2020-05)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Recent strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analyses of bones and teeth have provided useful archeological results for reconstructing past human migration and diet. We report 87Sr/86Sr ratios and DNA analyses of tooth enamel from individuals buried in some necropolises in Nola town, near Napoli (Campania, South Italy). These individuals lived in the period between the Avellino (1925 years BCE) and CE 472 Pollena Vesuvian eruptions and are dated on archeological basis to the time span between the sixth and second century BCE. Tooth enamel 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.70788–0.70864) are higher than baseline values in the necropolises (0.70756–0.70792): this can be explained by assuming either that all the analyzed individuals are not local—an unlikely possibility—or that they ate both local and foreign food (within about 50 km), including 87Sr-rich seafood. An explanation for such a varied diet might be that the individuals from Nola were living near the Ancient Appia and Popilia ways and not far from the coastline. Whatever its origin, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios represent the isotopic signature of the local community living on the slopes of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius between the sixth and second centuries BCE. This knowledge will support future isotope studies on volcanic eruptions as possible causes of human migration.1010 5 - PublicationOpen AccessLa Sassa cave: Isotopic evidence for Copper Age and Bronze Age population dynamics in Central Italy(2023)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; This study focuses on the changes in diet and mobility of people buried in the La Sassa cave (Latium, Central Italy) during the Copper and Bronze Ages to contribute to the understanding of the complex contemporary population dynamics in Central Italy. To that purpose, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses, strontium isotope analyses, and FT-IR evaluations were performed on human and faunal remains from this cave. The stable isotope analyses evidence a slight shift in diet between Copper and Bronze Age individuals, which becomes prominent in an individual, dating from a late phase, when the cave was mainly used as a cultic shelter. This diachronic study documents an increased dietary variability due to the introduction of novel resources in these protohistoric societies, possibly related to the southward spread of northern human groups into Central Italy. This contact between different cultures is also testified by the pottery typology found in the cave. The latter shows an increase in cultural intermingling starting during the beginning of the middle Bronze Age. The local mobility during this phase likely involved multiple communities scattered throughout an area of a few kilometers around the cave, which used the latter as a burial site both in the Copper and Bronze ages.346 7 - PublicationOpen AccessExploring mobility in Italian Neolithic and Copper Age communities(2021-01-29)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;As a means for investigating human mobility during late the Neolithic to the Copper Age in central and southern Italy, this study presents a novel dataset of enamel oxygen and carbon isotope values (δ18Oca and δ13Cca) from the carbonate fraction of biogenic apatite for one hundred and twenty-six individual teeth coming from two Neolithic and eight Copper Age communities. The measured δ18Oca values suggest a significant role of local sources in the water inputs to the body water, whereas δ13Cca values indicate food resources, principally based on C3 plants. Both δ13Cca and δ18Oca ranges vary substantially when samples are broken down into local populations. Statistically defined thresholds, accounting for intra-site variability, allow the identification of only a few outliers in the eight Copper Age communities, suggesting that sedentary lifestyle rather than extensive mobility characterized the investigated populations. This seems to be also typical of the two studied Neolithic communities. Overall, this research shows that the investigated periods in peninsular Italy differed in mobility pattern from the following Bronze Age communities from more northern areas.135 19