Movement of agricultural products in the Scandinavian Iron Age during the first millennium AD: 87Sr/86Sr values of archaeological crops and animals in southern Sweden

Larsson, Mikael; Magnell, Ola; Styring, Amy; Lagerås, Per; Evans, Jane. 2020 Movement of agricultural products in the Scandinavian Iron Age during the first millennium AD: 87Sr/86Sr values of archaeological crops and animals in southern Sweden. STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, 6 (1). 96-112. https://doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2020.1840121

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.

Preview

Text (Open Access Paper)
Movement of agricultural products in the Scandinavian Iron Age during the first millennium AD 87Sr 86Sr values of archaeological crops and animals in.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Download (4MB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2020.1840121

Abstract/Summary

In this paper, we examine the exchange of crops and livestock through the application of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope analysis on cereal grains and faunal tooth enamel from the regional center of Uppåkra and three nearby settlements in Scania, southern Sweden, dating to the first millennium AD. Around a third of the fauna have non-local 87Sr/86Sr values, indicating the import of livestock from several different regions. After cleaning, almost all of the cereal grains have non-local 87Sr/86Sr values, which is surprising given the nearby abundance of fertile agricultural soils. We therefore suggest considering non-locally grown crops to be those whose 87Sr/86Sr values fall outside the normal distribution; if this approach is used, around 20% of the analyzed crop samples are interpreted as having grown non-locally. This study demonstrates the potential of combining strontium isotopic data of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material for gaining insights into the movement of agricultural products in prehistory.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2020.1840121
ISSN:	2054-8923
Date made live:	06 Nov 2020 12:46 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/528853

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/20548923.2020.1840121

ISSN:

2054-8923

Date made live:

06 Nov 2020 12:46 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/528853