Combining Strontium and Sulphur Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Paleolithic Reindeer Mobility

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Research into the Late Pleistocene of Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Understanding the movement patterns of past animals is key to unravelling Paleolithic hunter-gatherer mobility and landscape use. Strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) has long been used as a proxy for provenance studies based on the high correlation between strontium values in faunal tissues and underlying lithology. However, interpreting 87Sr/86Sr results can prove challenging in areas with either homogenous or heterogenous lithologies. Sulphur isotopic analysis (δ34S) is becoming increasingly useful as a secondary indicator of provenance due to an increased understanding in sulfur variability in relation to coastlines/sea spray effects, changes in lithology and with climate. Thus, combining 87Sr/86Sr and δ34S analyses offers the potential to improve reconstructions of individual movement histories and to infer species-specific spatial behaviors. Focusing on Late Pleistocene France, we present novel 87Sr/86Sr and δ34S isotope data evidencing reindeer mobility patterns across the sedimentary basins of France. By comparing time-series 87Sr/86Sr data and bulk collagen δ34S, we generate a diachronic dataset including samples from Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites, allowing us to reconstruct seasonal movements from early-life and compare with later-life spatial data. This data further illuminates behavioral plasticity in Late Pleistocene reindeer, and the relationship between reindeer paleoecology to past climate change and human behaviors.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Research into the Late Pleistocene of Europe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39936.0