About this Research Topic
Provenance, residential mobility and migration are recurrent themes in archaeological research. Since the 1980s, isotope analysis of archaeological skeletal remains has revolutionized research in this field with a view to improving understanding of connectivity and interaction, cultural change and discontinuity, social/political and economic developments in past communities. Initially in America and Northern Europe and later also in the rest of the globe, analysis of isotope ratios of certain elements, such as strontium, oxygen and sulphur, which are known to vary with the local geological and environmental conditions, have been employed to track provenance and trace residential mobility. In addition, natural variation in the distribution of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen throughout different ecosystems enables their use as natural dietary tracers. As different dietary practices may also reflect different populations, carbon and nitrogen isotopes in addition to isotopes of strontium, oxygen and sulphur have also been used as proxies to identify different, new populations, and thus track and interpret past residential mobility.
In addition, more recent advances in isotope analysis in terms of research methodology and theoretical background have further improved our ability to identify both short- and long-term residential mobility through sequential and micro-sampling. This has enabled us to move beyond the simple dichotomous classification of past individuals as either local or nonlocal; to shed light on the nuances of migration and its implications for the social groups involved, i.e. the people moving, the receiving communities as well as those staying behind; and to advance to a more informed understanding of the complexity of these processes, the motivations and consequences for all parties involved. In other words, these advances have helped us look more closely into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of mobility at a given time in the past, as well as the socio-economic and biological implications of these relocations.
In the Aegean, more than ten years following the first ever announcement of strontium isotope ratio results from Greece at the World Archaeology Inter-Congress in Osaka, and the first publications using this methodology, such as the work of Nafplioti and Richards et al., there is a surge of isotope studies on past mobility including critical review of relevant published data, the potential and limitations of research of this type in the Aegean and more broadly.
In this context, this collection is intended to offer insights into the current state of the art of isotope research on residential mobility in the Aegean and its immediate periphery, using human and animal skeletal remains and a broad array of isotope systems and methodologies.
We welcome research and review papers on isotopic research on past human and/or animal residential mobility in the Aegean and its immediate, which address issues of:
- connectivity and interaction,
- cultural change and discontinuity
- socio-political processes
- subsistence practices, including land-use and animal husbandry, such as transhumance
- research methodology and/or data interpretation
In addition, more recent advances in isotope analysis in terms of research methodology and theoretical background have further improved our ability to identify both short- and long-term residential mobility through sequential and micro-sampling. This has enabled us to move beyond the simple dichotomous classification of past individuals as either local or nonlocal; to shed light on the nuances of migration and its implications for the social groups involved, i.e. the people moving, the receiving communities as well as those staying behind; and to advance to a more informed understanding of the complexity of these processes, the motivations and consequences for all parties involved. In other words, these advances have helped us look more closely into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of mobility at a given time in the past, as well as the socio-economic and biological implications of these relocations.
In the Aegean, more than ten years following the first ever announcement of strontium isotope ratio results from Greece at the World Archaeology Inter-Congress in Osaka, and the first publications using this methodology, such as the work of Nafplioti and Richards et al., there is a surge of isotope studies on past mobility including critical review of relevant published data, the potential and limitations of research of this type in the Aegean and more broadly.
In this context, this collection is intended to offer insights into the current state of the art of isotope research on residential mobility in the Aegean and its immediate periphery, using human and animal skeletal remains and a broad array of isotope systems and methodologies.
We welcome research and review papers on isotopic research on past human and/or animal residential mobility in the Aegean and its immediate, which address issues of:
- connectivity and interaction,
- cultural change and discontinuity
- socio-political processes
- subsistence practices, including land-use and animal husbandry, such as transhumance
- research methodology and/or data interpretation
Keywords: Isotopic Analysis, Aegean, Mobility, Human Remains, Animal Remains
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