Reconstructing Middle and Upper Paleolithic human mobility in Portuguese Estremadura through laser ablation strontium isotope analysis
Reconstructing Middle and Upper Paleolithic human mobility in Portuguese Estremadura through laser ablation strontium isotope analysis
Understanding mobility and landscape use is important in reconstructing subsistence behavior, range, and group size, and it may contribute to our understanding of phenomena such as the dynamics of biological and cultural interactions between distinct populations of Upper Pleistocene humans. However, studies using traditional strontium isotope analysis are generally limited to identifying locations of childhood residence or nonlocal individuals and lack the sampling resolution to detect movement over short timescales. Here, using an optimized methodology, we present highly spatially resolved 87Sr/86Sr measurements made by laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry along the growth axis of the enamel of two marine isotope stage 5b, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal teeth (Gruta da Oliveira), a Tardiglacial, Late Magdalenian human tooth (Galeria da Cisterna), and associated contemporaneous fauna from the Almonda karst system, Torres Novas, Portugal. Strontium isotope mapping of the region shows extreme variation in 87Sr/86Sr, with values ranging from 0.7080 to 0.7160 over a distance of c. 50 km, allowing short-distance (and arguably short-duration) movement to be detected. We find that the early Middle Paleolithic individuals roamed across a subsistence territory of approximately 600 km2, while the Late Magdalenian individual parsimoniously fits a pattern of limited, probably seasonal movement along the right bank of the 20-km-long Almonda River valley, between mouth and spring, exploiting a smaller territory of approximately 300 km2. We argue that the differences in territory size are due to an increase in population density during the Late Upper Paleolithic.
Linscott, Beth
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Pike, Alistair
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Angelucci, Diego E.
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Cooper, Matthew
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Milton, James
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Matais, Henrique
84a8e489-070a-41a8-8404-7936006eb09f
Zilhão, J.
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16 May 2023
Linscott, Beth
6a8f3a91-afcf-45fc-8682-c2236c36d11f
Pike, Alistair
e8603e20-0a89-4d57-a294-247b983fc857
Angelucci, Diego E.
b85f93d8-aa64-4111-b8be-788337cb06f4
Cooper, Matthew
54f7bff0-1f8c-4835-8358-71eef8529e7a
Milton, James
9e183221-d0d4-4ddb-aeba-0fdde9d31230
Matais, Henrique
84a8e489-070a-41a8-8404-7936006eb09f
Zilhão, J.
8dcc60d7-0673-4cf4-925c-a7d0c07ea804
Linscott, Beth, Pike, Alistair, Angelucci, Diego E., Cooper, Matthew, Milton, James, Matais, Henrique and Zilhão, J.
(2023)
Reconstructing Middle and Upper Paleolithic human mobility in Portuguese Estremadura through laser ablation strontium isotope analysis.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (20), [e2204501120].
(doi:10.1073/pnas.2204501120).
Abstract
Understanding mobility and landscape use is important in reconstructing subsistence behavior, range, and group size, and it may contribute to our understanding of phenomena such as the dynamics of biological and cultural interactions between distinct populations of Upper Pleistocene humans. However, studies using traditional strontium isotope analysis are generally limited to identifying locations of childhood residence or nonlocal individuals and lack the sampling resolution to detect movement over short timescales. Here, using an optimized methodology, we present highly spatially resolved 87Sr/86Sr measurements made by laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry along the growth axis of the enamel of two marine isotope stage 5b, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal teeth (Gruta da Oliveira), a Tardiglacial, Late Magdalenian human tooth (Galeria da Cisterna), and associated contemporaneous fauna from the Almonda karst system, Torres Novas, Portugal. Strontium isotope mapping of the region shows extreme variation in 87Sr/86Sr, with values ranging from 0.7080 to 0.7160 over a distance of c. 50 km, allowing short-distance (and arguably short-duration) movement to be detected. We find that the early Middle Paleolithic individuals roamed across a subsistence territory of approximately 600 km2, while the Late Magdalenian individual parsimoniously fits a pattern of limited, probably seasonal movement along the right bank of the 20-km-long Almonda River valley, between mouth and spring, exploiting a smaller territory of approximately 300 km2. We argue that the differences in territory size are due to an increase in population density during the Late Upper Paleolithic.
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linscott accepted manuscript 559687_2_merged_1675676842
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pnas.2204501120
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Submitted date: 31 March 2022
Accepted/In Press date: 27 February 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 March 2023
Published date: 16 May 2023
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Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. B.L. was supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership scholarship. A.W.G.P.’s research was supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Radiocarbon dates were funded by National Environmental Isotope Facility Project 2386.0321.We would like to thank Paul Pettitt and Chris Standish for their help collecting the sediment samples, as well as Erik Trinkaus, John Willman, Simon Davis, and Cristina Gameiro for their help with the selection of the human and faunal samples.
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 477665
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/477665
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: 3202d587-f8cf-4aaf-86b2-023675e30d37
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Date deposited: 12 Jun 2023 16:49
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:30
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Contributors
Author:
Beth Linscott
Author:
Diego E. Angelucci
Author:
Henrique Matais
Author:
J. Zilhão
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