Human mobility during the Greek Neolithic: A multi-isotope analysis of the burials from Alepotrypa Cave

Summary

This study measures strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope ratios in human and domesticated animal teeth from Alepotrypa Cave, a cave that was used for both shelter and burial of the dead from the Early to the Final Neolithic period (6000 – 3200 BC) in southern Greece. Previous radiogenic isotope research on archaeological material in Greece indicates that there are significant differences in 87Sr/86Sr ranges in the Aegean due to the complex geology (Nafplioti 2011; Richards et al. 2008). This established isotopic baseline is compared to enamel samples from Alepotrypa Cave to evaluate whether the individuals in the cave grew up in the surrounding geological (tectonic) zone. Preliminary strontium results indicate that the people buried in the cave originated from both “local” and “non-local” geological contexts. These data are also compared to δ18O and δ13C values from the same samples to determine whether these independent measures of location and diet corroborate the strontium results.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Long-Term Settlement Dynamics and Land Use on the Mani peninsula of Southern Greece

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