Reconstruction of migration and mobility using strontium isotope analysis of archaeological human skeletons -Do 87Sr/86Sr ratios of animal bones reflect 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the birth- and growth-places?-

Abstract

To evaluate whether 87Sr/86Sr ratio of a bone reflects 87Sr/86Sr ratio of the birth- and growth-places, two bone samples, together with the geological samples in their birth- and growth-places, were measured for 87Sr/86Sr ratios by TIMS. The samples used are a boar collected at Asuke, Toyota City, Aichi prefecture, and a black bass collected from Lake Biwa. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of the boar bone was 0.71001±0.00002, while those of stream sediments in the Asuke area was around 0.710. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of the black bass bone was 0.71215±0.00002, while those of surface water at the southern basin in Lake Biwa was 0.71233±0.00002. The similar 87Sr/86Sr ratios between bone and its provenance geology indicates that the 87Sr/86Sr ratio of bone reflects the isotopic ratios of the birth- and growth-places.