The Contribution of Stable Isotope Analysis to the Study of Childhood Movement and Migration

Abstract

Stable isotope analysis is firmly established as a method for the investigation of past population mobility. The distinction between local and non-local individuals within a cemetery population relies on identifying an individual’s place of childhood residence through the analysis of strontium and oxygen isotopes present in human tooth enamel. Traditionally, studies investigating mobility focus on the analysis of a single tooth. More recently, however, it has become apparent that in order to investigate the mobility of an individual during childhood—and thus to consider the importance of children in the migration process—it is necessary to analyse a series of teeth which form at different stages during the early years of life. This chapter will consider the potential of—and challenges surrounding—this scientific approach to the investigation of childhood mobility in the past.

Mobility and rickets: Investigating Vitamin D deficiency and regional mobility in Aventicum, Roman Switzerland (first to third century CE)

“…Stable oxygen isotopes measured in tooth enamel are a reflection of local food and water consumed during tooth formation (White, Spence, Stuart‐Williams, & Schwarcz, ). Oxygen values in local food and water are determined primarily by the δ 18 O value of environmental precipitation (Hemer & Evans, ). As δ 18 O values in precipitation are influenced by vicinity to bodies of water, latitude, and altitude, differing values can be used to track mobility using enamel from teeth that form at different ages (White et al, ).…”

“…Oxygen values in local food and water are determined primarily by the δ 18 O value of environmental precipitation (Hemer & Evans, 2018). As δ 18 O values in precipitation are influenced by vicinity to bodies of water, latitude, and altitude, differing values can be used to track mobility using enamel from teeth that form at different ages (White et al, 1998).…”

Youth Mobility, Migration, and Health Before and After the Black Death

“…Previous research into the nature and extent of medieval migration using isotopes has mainly focussed on adult skeletons, with information on their age at death, rather than their age of migration being reported. New approaches using multiple teeth to trace the patterns of migration from birth to 14 years have improved our level of understanding about the age at which people moved (Hamre et al 2017;Hemer and Evans 2018;Hrnčíř and Laffoon 2019;Petersone-Gordina et al 2020), but a large-scale analysis of the nature of youth movement in the past has been lacking. In addition, the physical status of these adolescents is rarely considered.…”