A Multi-isotope Approach to Hunter-Gatherer Mobility and Microregional Connectivity in Middle Holocene Cis-Baikal, Southern Siberia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic variability in the environment is commonly used in archaeology to study provenance and mobility in the past. The interpretation of 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O isotopic values in humans, typically measured in dental enamel, relies on a comparison with the potential source, using local isotopic baselines based on empirical and/or modeled values. This study focuses on the Baikal Rift Zone to discuss the advantages and limitations of different approaches to spatial analysis of multi-isotopic data, including interpolation and machine learning. Characterized by distinct geology and biodiversity, the Lake Baikal region has a variable spatial distribution of isotopic abundances, which creates favorable conditions in which to apply isotopic mapping and probabilistic geographic assignments. The new isotopic baseline models for δ18O and bioavailable strontium (87Sr/86Sr) were constructed using local plant (n = 355), water (n = 70), and human and faunal (n = 148) samples. The archaeological populations studied were Early Bronze Age foragers (4970–3470 cal BP) with material culture and isotopic dietary evidence suggestive of regional-level interconnections. This study reports over 200 new human and faunal 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O values, contextualized by producing quantitative geographic assignments to inform and cross-validate archaeological interpretations from the Lake Baikal region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37375.0