Strontium isotope evidence for Late Neolithic mobility in South-Central Portugal

Summary

During the end of the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE (Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic) in South-Central Portugal significant movement of people has been assumed due to the widespread distribution of ‘foreign’ artefacts found at coastal and inland archaeological sites. Counter to this, other archaeological evidence from the region seems to suggest a more sedentary lifestyle among these people at that time. Here we will present human strontium isotope data from three Late Neolithic tombs, namely the dolmens of Estria and Carcavelos (n=14) near Lisbon (Estremadura), and the tholos tomb 1 at Perdigões (n=27) in Alentejo, to directly address the scale of mobility vs sedentary behavior during the Late Neolithic. Our initial results suggest that in comparison to measured isotopic baselines using contemporary archaeological fauna, over 20% of humans from all three sites investigated could be considered non-local, which may indicate a greater level of inter-regional mobility during the Late Neolithic than previously anticipated.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage