10. Identifying Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Patterns Using Strontium Isotopes

Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, Siberia: An overview for the new century

“…At that time, however, only one sample from the Little Sea (the Shamanskii Mys cemetery on Ol'khon Island) was examined. More recent bone and tooth geochemistry work on a much larger sample, including a large suite from the Little Sea, now suggests yet a different situation (Haverkort et al, 2008(Haverkort et al, , 2010Katzenberg et al, 2010;Weber et al, 2003;Weber and Goriunova, in preparation). Critical to understanding the LN-EBA mobility patterns is the occurrence of the GFS diet which, as mentioned, has been documented only in the Ol'khon area.…”

“…Additional geochemical data from Shamanka II and the EN component of the Kurma XI cemetery, and several of the lines of evidence discussed above, completely support that view. Preliminary results of strontium stable isotope work suggest that the groups represented by the cemeteries of Lokomotiv and Ust'-Ida I, in the Angara valley, and Khuzhir-Nuge XIV, on the Little Sea, all used different home ranges (Haverkort et al, 2008(Haverkort et al, , 2010.…”

Differentiating mobility and migration in middle Holocene Cis-Baikal, Siberia

“…In order to differentiate the KN XIV population using this approach, individuals were separated out by the relationship between the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr data at each point (M1, M2, M3, and femur) for every individual. This yielded a series of different patterns that better explained the high strontium variability noted earlier, and suggested relevant patterns in mobility and foraging behavior (Haverkort et al, 2010;Haverkort et al, 2008). Parsing out provenance or tying patterns of behavior using the geologic and faunal reference materials proved elusive as samples such as mice and suslik, which are not anticipated to contribute greatly to the dietary intake of subarctic residents, provided the clearest evidence of geographically discrete areas of high and low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values.…”

“…The BAP began conducting biogeochemical research on a large scale during this period of refinement and experimentation, beginning first with dietary isotopic studies (Katzenberg and Weber, 1999;Lam, 1994;Weber et al, 2002), and expanding into mobility studies using strontium isotopes (Haverkort et al, 2010;Haverkort et al, 2008;Scharlotta et al, 2013;Scharlotta and Weber, 2014;Weber et al, 2003). Initial biochemical research was exploratory (Lam, 1994), querying the potential dietary evidence that could be reconstructed from hunter-gatherers within the Cis-Baikal region.…”

“…This discussion is based in a series of articles and book chapters produced over the last decade by the Baikal Archaeology Project (BAP) focusing on is the Cis-Baikal region of eastern Siberia (Haverkort et al, 2010;Haverkort et al, 2008;Scharlotta et al, 2013;Scharlotta and Weber, 2014;Weber and Goriunova, 2013;Weber et al, 2011). This research was produced in an environment of rapidly changing technical and theoretical discussions about how to address hunter-gatherer and mobility research.…”