Bioavailable ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr variability and Bronze and Iron Ages caprine mobility on the Balearic Islands (Spain)

Abstract

This paper presents the most extensive ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr datasets from Late Prehistory contexts in addition to bioavailable ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values for baseline characterization on the Balearic Islands. A total of 149 caprine dental enamel samples from Mallorca, Menorca, and Formentera islands (Spain), and 35 environmental baseline samples covering the main geologies of these islands are presented here. In addition, a combination of strontium and oxygen sequential analysis was performed on seven individuals from two sites that showed some of the most diverse ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values to better understand their mobility patterns. The main goal of this research is to provide more information about isotopic variability of bioavailable strontium on the Balearic Islands and livestock management during the Bronze and Iron Ages, thus allowing us to understand how human communities exploited their landscape and interacted with other populations.

Keywords:

• Animal mobility
• strontium isotopes
• oxygen isotopes
• Mediterranean archaeology
• Late Prehistory

Supplemental Material

S1. Description of the archaeological sites.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Comunitat Autònoma de les Illes Balears through the Direcció General de Política Universitaria i Recerca with funds from the Tourist Stay Tax Law ITS 2017-006 under the Grant (PRD2018/19) “La construcció dels paisatges culturals durant l'Edat del Bronze a les Illes Balears” of the ArqueoUIB Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands; R&D Project (PID2019-108692GB) financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Universities MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033 under the Grant “Movilidad y conectividad de las comunidades prehistóricas en el Mediterráneo Occidental durante la prehistoria reciente: El caso de las Islas Baleares”of the ArqueoUIB Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands; and the work of Lua Valenzuela-Suau has been supported by the Margarita Salas postdoctoral contract financed by the Ministerio de Universidades, under the Pla de Recuperació, Transformació i Resiliència, and financed by the European Union (NextGenerationEU), with the participation of the Universitat de les Illes Balears.

We would like to thank the Consell Insular de Menorca, Museu de Menorca, and Museu Municipal de Ciutadella for facilitating access to deposited materials. We would like to thank Dr Alejandra Galmés-Alba for elaborating the map of this paper and Dr Jeremy Hayne for proof-reading the manuscript. Thanks also to Dr Jose María Pozo for his assistance with the figures, and a special thanks to Malena Bibiloni Amorós, Tomeu Ramis Amer, and Joan Benejam Ruf for their labor and knowledge with the actual vegetation sampling. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, whose comments have improved the paper.

Author’s contribution

LVS, SVL, LDP, AD, DR, MD-Z, and MC conceived the study, carried out the isotope analysis, and wrote the manuscript. MA, EC, MC, NE, AF, JF, JH-G, DJ, SM, BP, LLO, MS, BS, PS, and LT provided context information and archaeological materials and contributed to the review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.