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Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old \"Skrydstrup Woman\" from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections; consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical, biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17-18 years old when she died, and that she moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14 years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way movement of an elite female during the possible \"age of marriageability\" might suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction in prehistory.

During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 11 th -8 th century BCE), far-reaching and extensive trade and exchange networks linked communities across Europe. The area around Seddin in north-western Brandenburg, Germany, has long been considered as at the core of one such networks. The degree of which the exchange practices involved in the circulations of goods and ideas was facilitated by people of different origins settling along the networks remains to be understood. To address this question, this study presents Sr isotope data of 29 cremated petrous bones from five neighbouring Late Bronze Age burial sites around Seddin, including the 9 th century BCE Wickbold I burial mound. Modern environmental samples and archaeological soil samples were also analysed for 87 Sr/ 86 Sr to establish a bioavailable reference baseline for the region. The results suggest that modern water and archaeological soil samples appear to be best suited proxies for defining a 87 Sr/ 86 Sr baseline that can reliably be used to trace Bronze Age mobility at Seddin, while the modern soil and plant sample 87 Sr/ 86 Sr data seem to reflect changes inherent to natural carbonate leaching of the glaciogenic surface sediments over time and/or recent anthropogenic contamination, such as fertilizers, rendering their use as representative archives for bioavailable Sr in the study of past human mobility, at least in the greater Seddin region, problematic. The comparison of the petrous bone 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures to the proposed water Sr isotope baseline reveals an overwhelming presence of non-locals in the investigated grave sites, with only two of 22 individuals falling within the local baseline. This study suggests complex mobility patterns of the elite community around Seddin during the Late Bronze Age.

Sulfur isotope composition of organic tissues is a commonly used tool for gathering information about provenance and diet in archaeology and paleoecology. However, the lack of maps predicting sulfur isotope variations on the landscape limits the possibility to use this isotopic system in quantitative geographic assignments. We compiled a database of 2,680 sulfur isotope analyses in the collagen of archaeological human and animal teeth from 221 individual locations across Western Europe. We used this isotopic compilation and remote sensing data to apply a multivariate machine-learning regression, and to predict sulfur isotope variations across Western Europe. The resulting model shows that sulfur isotope patterns are highly predictable, with 65% of sulfur isotope variations explained using only 4 variables representing marine sulfate deposition and local geological conditions. We used this novel sulfur isoscape and existing strontium and oxygen isoscapes of Western Europe to apply triple isotopes continuous-surface probabilistic geographic assignments to assess the origin of a series of teeth from local animals and humans from Brittany. We accurately and precisely constrained the origin of these individuals to limited regions of Brittany. This approach is broadly transferable to studies in archaeology and paleoecology as illustrated in a companion paper (Colleter et al. 2021).

Strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) are gaining considerable interest as a geolocation tool and are now widely applied in archaeology, ecology, and forensic research. However, their application for provenance requires the development of baseline models predicting surficial 87Sr/86Sr variations (\"isoscapes\"). A variety of empirically-based and process-based models have been proposed to build terrestrial 87Sr/86Sr isoscapes but, in their current forms, those models are not mature enough to be integrated with continuous-probability surface models used in geographic assignment. In this study, we aim to overcome those limitations and to predict 87Sr/86Sr variations across Western Europe by combining process-based models and a series of remote-sensing geospatial products into a regression framework. We find that random forest regression significantly outperforms other commonly used regression and interpolation methods, and efficiently predicts the multi-scale patterning of 87Sr/86Sr variations by accounting for geological, geomorphological and atmospheric controls. Random forest regression also provides an easily interpretable and flexible framework to integrate different types of environmental auxiliary variables required to model the multi-scale patterning of 87Sr/86Sr variability. The method is transferable to different scales and resolutions and can be applied to the large collection of geospatial data available at local and global levels. The isoscape generated in this study provides the most accurate 87Sr/86Sr predictions in bioavailable strontium for Western Europe (R2 = 0.58 and RMSE = 0.0023) to date, as well as a conservative estimate of spatial uncertainty by applying quantile regression forest. We anticipate that the method presented in this study combined with the growing numbers of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr data and satellite geospatial products will extend the applicability of the 87Sr/86Sr geo-profiling tool in provenance applications.

This study investigates to what extent Bronze Age societies in Northern Italy were permeable accepting and integrating non-local individuals, as well as importing a wide range of raw materials, commodities, and ideas from networks spanning continental Europe and the Mediterranean. During the second millennium BC, the communities of Northern Italy engaged in a progressive stabilization of settlements, culminating in the large polities of the end of the Middle/beginning of the Late Bronze Age pivoted around large defended centres (the Terramare). Although a wide range of exotic archaeological materials indicates that the inhabitants of the Po plain increasingly took part in the networks of Continental European and the Eastern Mediterranean, we should not overlook the fact that the dynamics of interaction were also extremely active on local and regional levels. Mobility patterns have been explored for three key-sites, spanning the Early to Late Bronze Age (1900-1100 BC), namely Sant'Eurosia, Casinalbo and Fondo Paviani, through strontium and oxygen isotope analysis on a large sample size (more than 100 individuals). The results, integrated with osteological and archaeological data, document for the first time in this area that movements of people occurred mostly within a territorial radius of 50 km, but also that larger nodes in the settlement system (such as Fondo Paviani) included individuals from more distant areas. This suggests that, from a demographic perspective, the process towards a more complex socio-political system in Bronze Age Northern Italy was triggered by a largely, but not completely, internal process, stemming from the dynamics of intra-polity networks and local/regional power relationships.

Social anthropology and ethnographic studies have described kinship systems and networks of contact and exchange in extant populations 1 – 4 . However, for prehistoric societies, these systems can be studied only indirectly from biological and cultural remains. Stable isotope data, sex and age at death can provide insights into the demographic structure of a burial community and identify local versus non-local childhood signatures, archaeogenetic data can reconstruct the biological relationships between individuals, which enables the reconstruction of pedigrees, and combined evidence informs on kinship practices and residence patterns in prehistoric societies. Here we report ancient DNA, strontium isotope and contextual data from more than 100 individuals from the site Gurgy ‘les Noisats’ (France), dated to the western European Neolithic around 4850–4500  bc . We find that this burial community was genetically connected by two main pedigrees, spanning seven generations, that were patrilocal and patrilineal, with evidence for female exogamy and exchange with genetically close neighbouring groups. The microdemographic structure of individuals linked and unlinked to the pedigrees reveals additional information about the social structure, living conditions and site occupation. The absence of half-siblings and the high number of adult full siblings suggest that there were stable health conditions and a supportive social network, facilitating high fertility and low mortality 5 . Age-structure differences and strontium isotope results by generation indicate that the site was used for just a few decades, providing new insights into shifting sedentary farming practices during the European Neolithic. The burial community at Gurgy ‘les Noisats’ (France) was genetically connected by two main pedigrees, spanning seven generations, that were patrilocal and patrilineal, with evidence for female exogamy and exchange with genetically close neighbouring groups.

Radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope analysis is a well-established method for reconstructing the mobility of human populations in the past and present. Baseline 87Sr/86Sr data are fundamental to the method, as Sr varies across the landscape according to local geology and geoenvironmental factors. The method's application within studies of ancient Mesoamerican paleomobility, however, has concentrated on two key regions-Teotihuacan and the Maya region-despite its potential broader relevance across greater Mesoamerica. This is due in part to a lack of available baseline 87Sr/86Sr data for the region at large. Using the Valley of Oaxaca as a case study, we use Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) to generate a locally calibrated predictive 87Sr/86Sr isoscape model of Mesoamerica in general and the Valley of Oaxaca in particular. We integrate (1) observed 87Sr/86Sr data from modern plant samples (n = 95) from 17 sites across the Valley, (2) a compiled database of continental North and South American 87Sr/86Sr data, (3) geological bedrock maps, and (4) high resolution spatial data on geoenvironmental Sr covariates to iteratively develop and test a high performing predictive model for Mesoamerica, highlighting the importance of regional calibration in developing predictive 87Sr/86Sr isoscapes. Our results indicate that though overlap exists, 87Sr/86Sr can be used to detect migration within the Valley of Oaxaca as well as between the Valley and greater Mesoamerica. We then apply our isoscape to previously published human 87Sr/86Sr data from Monte Albán, Oaxaca to demonstrate how our model's explicit quantification of uncertainty in local 87Sr/86Sr ranges allows for more nuanced interpretation of paleomobility in archaeological samples.

Megalithism has been repetitively tied to specialised herding economies in Iberia, particularly in the mountainous areas of the Basque Country. Legaire Sur, in the uplands of Álava region, is a recently excavated passage tomb (megalithic monument) that held a minimum number of 25 individuals. This study analysed the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium isotope ratios of 18 individuals, in a multi-tissue sampling study (successional tooth enamel sampling, incremental dentine sampling, and bulk bone collagen sampling). The results provide a high-resolution reconstruction of individual mobility, weaning, and dietary lifeways of those inhumed at the site. Oxygen and strontium isotope analysis suggest all individuals come from a similar, likely local, geological region, aside from one biological female who presents a notably different geographical birthplace, weaning, and dietary life history than the rest of the burial population. Comparisons to other nearby megalithic sites (∼35km as the crow flies), located in a valley area, reveal that, whilst sharing the same mortuary practices, these individuals held notably different lifeways. They highlight notably earlier ages of cessation of nursing (≤2 years at Legaire Sur vs. ≥4 years in other megalithic tombs), and a greater dependence on pastoralism than previously observed in lowland megalithic graves. The results from Legaire Sur reveal the complexity of the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in north-central Iberia, categorising yet another separate socio-economic group with distinctive lifeways inhabiting the region.

Bioavailable strontium (Sr) isoscapes are essential tools in studies on environmental processes, animal and human mobility and provenance. The success of these studies relies on the comparison between the measured 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope ratios of specimens and the spatial distribution of environmental bioavailable Sr isotopic signatures across geographical regions. A critical step of this process is the construction of reference maps that integrate environmental Sr isotopic data with geographical information. Here, we present a new bioavailable Sr dataset of 113 environmental samples, including plants and malacological samples collected from center-east Argentina (Paraná Delta, Pampa and Entre Ríos plains) as well as adjacent Uruguay, covering an area of approximately 122,500 km 2 . This dataset is further integrated with archaeological bioapatite data from the literature to construct the first random forest-based Sr isoscape of the region. Notably this area is on recent Quaternary (fluvial, marine and aeolian) sediments derived from the erosion of magmatic and metamorphic terrains with different Sr isotope composition from low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (about 0.706) to highly radiogenic signatures (>0.71), and heterogeneously transported in the Delta area by the rivers and in the high plains by wind and rivers. This isoscape offers a unique perspective on the Sr isotope distribution in a lithologically homogeneous region characterized by relatively young sedimentary sequences. This work represents a significant advancement in the development of Sr isoscapes, providing a fundamental tool for environmental and archaeological applications in South America.

Hunter-gatherer exchange networks dampen subsistence and reproductive risks by building relationships of mutual support outside local groups that are underwritten by symbolic gift exchange. Hxaro, the system of delayed reciprocity between Ju/’hoãn individuals in southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert, is the best-known such example and the basis for most analogies and models of hunter-gatherer exchange in prehistory. However, its antiquity, drivers, and development remain unclear, as they do for long-distance exchanges among African foragers more broadly. Here we show through strontium isotope analyses of ostrich eggshell beads from highland Lesotho, and associated strontium isoscape development, that such practices stretch back into the late Middle Stone Age. We argue that these exchange items originated beyond the macroband from groups occupying the more water-stressed subcontinental interior. Tracking the emergence and persistence of macroscale, transbiome social networks helps illuminate the evolution of social strategies needed to thrive in stochastic environments, strategies that in our case study show persistence over more than 33,000 y.