Premium
Strontium and nitrogen isotopic evidence of food import to Tell Ashara–Terqa, a Bronze Age city on the Euphrates, Syria
Author(s) -
Sołtysiak Arkadiusz
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of osteoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1099-1212
pISSN - 1047-482X
DOI - 10.1002/oa.2724
Subject(s) - bronze age , strontium , archaeology , geography , isotopes of strontium , isotope analysis , population , precipitation , agriculture , tooth enamel , enamel paint , geology , chemistry , dentistry , demography , oceanography , medicine , organic chemistry , sociology , meteorology
Strontium stable isotope values ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) have been measured in tooth enamel samples representing 11 Bronze Age individuals buried at Tell Ashara–Terqa, a major archaeological site in the middle Euphrates valley, eastern Syria. For all analysed individuals, δ 15 N and δ 13 C values for dentin collagen were also available. No 87 Sr/ 86 Sr value exceeds the local environmental range, so there is no evidence of long‐distance migration. Observed statistically significant negative correlation between 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and δ 15 N values suggests that some food consumed by the local population was imported from areas with a much higher precipitation (lower δ 15 N) and a different geological background (higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), which is consistent with textual evidence of cereal transportation from farming areas north to Tell Ashara.