A Multisite Assessment of Mobility in Coastal and Interior Nicaragua through 87Sr/86Sr Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Migration and mobility have long been topics of interest in Nicaraguan prehistory, but research addressing these inquiries in the Greater Nicoya has relied primarily on linguistic analyses and the comparison of artifact typologies. Archaeological science is increasingly benefiting from the use of strontium isotope analysis as a proxy for mobility and migration. Here, we present the most thorough strontium isotope analysis of human remains and environmental baseline samples in Nicaragua to date. We analyzed strontium isotope ratios of 50 human teeth, primarily first molars, from 11 archaeological sites in four regions along Nicaragua’s Pacific coast and interior. We identified isotopic outliers and compared them to a strontium isoscape we constructed through the analysis of 40 vegetation samples along the coast. While the majority of individuals we analyzed appear to match their local signature, we identified several potential immigrants and discuss their origins in this presentation. Our study offers a new approach to consider mobility in this historically understudied region. This presentation contains images of human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41547.0