Bioavailable Strontium in the Southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A Tool for Tracking Human and Animal Movement

Barberena, Ramiro; Tessone, Augusto; Cagnoni, Mariana Celina; Gasco, Alejandra; Durán, Víctor; Winocur, Diego; Benítez, Anahí; Ferreyra, Gustavo A.; Trillas, Darío; Zonana, Inés; Novellino, Paula; Fernández, Manuel Blanco; Bavio, Marta A.; Zubillaga, Erica; Gautier, Eduardo A.

doi:10.1080/14614103.2019.1689894

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The geology of the southern Andes is especially suited for tracking local residence and immigration to the Uspallata Valley due to the high diversity of bedrock age and composition in a restricted area ( Fig. 2a; see 33,34 ). Biologically available strontium from each geological unit was characterized by the analysis of modern and archaeological rodent samples with restricted home ranges, which are appropriate for developing a baseline to compare to human samples [35][36][37] .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-isotopic and morphometric evidence for the migration of farmers leading up to the Inka conquest of the southern Andes

Barberena

Menéndez

Roux

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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We present isotopic and morphometric evidence suggesting the migration of farmers in the southern Andes in the period AD 1270–1420, leading up to the Inka conquest occurring ~ AD 1400. This is based on the interdisciplinary study of human remains from archaeological cemeteries in the Andean Uspallata Valley (Argentina), located in the southern frontier of the Inka Empire. The studied samples span AD 800–1500, encompassing the highly dynamic Late Intermediate Period and culminating with the imperial expansion. Our research combines a macro-regional study of human paleomobility and migration based on a new strontium isoscape across the Andes that allows identifying locals and migrants, a geometric morphometric analysis of cranio-facial morphology suggesting separate ancestral lineages, and a paleodietary reconstruction based on stable isotopes showing that the migrants had diets exceptionally high in C4 plants and largely based on maize agriculture. Significantly, this migration influx occurred during a period of regional demographic increase and would have been part of a widespread period of change in settlement patterns and population movements that preceded the Inka expansion. These processes increased local social diversity and may have been subsequently utilized by the Inka to channel interaction with the local societies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-isotopic and morphometric evidence for the migration of farmers leading up to the Inka conquest of the southern Andes

Barberena

Menéndez

Roux

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…The proportion of these different sources varies across the landscape, and is best understood by localized, multi-source mixing models (Montgomery et al, 2007;Bataille et al, , 2018Bataille et al, , 2020Willmes et al, 2018). In the Andes, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr baseline data from plants, fauna, and water are relatively limited compared to other world regions (but see Barberena et al, 2017Barberena et al, , 2019. Expectations for catchment 87 Sr/ 86 Sr are primarily derived from models based on bedrock outcroppings.…”

Section: Strontium Isotopes In the Andes: From Dietary Catchments To mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methods for defining the expected local 87 Sr/ 86 Sr range have shifted over the last few decades from statistically parsing human skeletal 87 Sr/ 86 Sr around the sample mean (e.g., Wright, 2005;Slovak et al, 2009;Price et al, 2015) to testing archeological and modern fauna with small home ranges (Price et al, 2002(Price et al, , 2007Evans and Tatham, 2004;Hedman et al, 2009Hedman et al, , 2018Knudson and Tung, 2011). More recently, many scholars have argued that the only reliable way to determine the local 87 Sr/ 86 Sr range is by analyzing the bioavailable strontium in local environmental reference or baseline materials like soils, plants, and local fauna, and then aggregating those reference 87 Sr/ 86 Sr to geological units, soil units, or statistical groupings of baseline and/or skeletal materials (Valentine et al, 2008;Evans et al, 2010;Maurer et al, 2012;Knudson et al, 2014;Kootker et al, 2016;Grimstead et al, 2017;Willmes et al, 2018;Barberena et al, 2019;Pacheco-Forés et al, 2020;Snoeck et al, 2020). Unfortunately, because underlying bedrock geology is highly variable even at a short distance, and because rock weathers unevenly throughout catchments, these methods do not enable the sourcing of a sample to any location beyond the immediate vicinity of the sampling location.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

et al. 2020

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The analysis of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr has become a robust tool for identifying non-local individuals at archeological sites. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in human bioapatite reflects the geological signature of food and water consumed during tissue development. Modeling relationships between 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in human environments, food webs, and archeological human tissues is critical for moving from identifying non-locals to determining their likely provenience. In the Andes, obstacles to sample geolocation include overlapping 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of distant geographies and a poor understanding of mixed strontium sources in food and drink. Here, water is investigated as a proxy for bioavailable strontium in archeological human skeletal and dental tissues. This study develops a water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape from 262 samples (220 new and 42 published samples), testing the model with published archeological human skeletal 87 Sr/ 86 Sr trimmed of probable non-locals. Water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and prediction error between the predicted and measured 87 Sr/ 86 Sr for the archeological test set are compared by elevation, underlying geology, and watershed size. Across the Peruvian Andes, water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ranges from 0.7049 to 0.7227 (M = 0.7081, SD = 0.0027). Water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr is higher in the highlands, in areas overlying older bedrock, and in larger watersheds, characteristics which are geographically correlated. Spatial outliers identified are from canals, wells, and one stream, suggesting those sources could show non-representative 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. The best-fit water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape achieves prediction errors for archeological samples ranging from 0.0017-0.0031 (M = 0.0012, n = 493). The water isoscape explains only 7.0% of the variation in archeological skeletal 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (R 2 = 0.07), but 90.0% of archeological skeleton 87 Sr/ 86 Sr fall within the site isoscape prediction ± site prediction standard error. Due to lower sampling density and higher geological variability in the highlands, the water 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isoscape is more useful for ruling out geographic origins for lowland

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“…To understand the strontium isotope variation observed in human or faunal remains of any period, it is necessary to construct a model or isoscape of biologically available strontium (BASr) not only around the sites of interest, but across the wider landscape (Bentley, 2006;Evans et al, 2009Evans et al, , 2010. Isoscapes describing spatial variation in the expected values of tracer isotopes have been generated either as continuous fields using geostatistical approaches (Bowen and Wilkinson, 2002;Ehleringer et al, 2008;Ostapkowicz et al, 2017), multi-source mixing models and machine learning (Bataille et al, 2018), or as discrete entities using variants of spatial aggregation (Kootker et al, 2016;Evans et al, 2018;Barberena et al, 2019). The former may be based directly on proxy data (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a biologically available strontium isotope baseline for Ireland

Snoeck

Ryan

Pouncett

et al. 2020

Science of The Total Environment

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Strontium isotopes are used in archaeology, ecology, forensics, and other disciplines to study the origin of artefacts, humans, animals and food items. Strontium in animal and human tissues such as bone and teeth originates from food and drink consumed during life, leaving an isotopic signal corresponding to their geographical origin (i.e. where the plants grew, the animals grazed and the drinking water passed through). To contextualise the measurements obtained directly on animal and human remains, it is necessary to have a sound baseline of the isotopic variation of biologically available strontium in the landscape. In general, plants represent the main source of strontium for humans and animals as they usually contain much higher strontium concentrations than animal products (meat and milk) or drinking water. The observed difference between the strontium isotope composition of geological bedrock, soils and plants from the same locality warrants direct measurement of plants to create a reliable baseline. Here we present the first baseline of the biologically available strontium isotope composition for the island of Ireland based on 228 measurements on plants from 140 distinct locations. The isoscape shows significant variation in strontium isotope composition between different areas of Ireland with values as low as 0.7067 for the basalt outcrops in County Antrim and values of up to 0.7164 in the Mourne

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Bioavailable Strontium in the Southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A Tool for Tracking Human and Animal Movement

Cited by 16 publications

References 28 publications

Multi-isotopic and morphometric evidence for the migration of farmers leading up to the Inka conquest of the southern Andes

Multi-isotopic and morphometric evidence for the migration of farmers leading up to the Inka conquest of the southern Andes

Drinking Locally: A Water 87Sr/86Sr Isoscape for Geolocation of Archeological Samples in the Peruvian Andes

Towards a biologically available strontium isotope baseline for Ireland

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