Claudia Gerling, "A Multi-Isotopic Approach to the Reconstruction of Prehistoric Mobility and Economic Patterns in the West Eurasian Steppes 3500 to 300 BC", in: eTopoi. Journal for Ancient Studies, Volume 3 (2014), 1–21

Abstract

The West Eurasian steppes during the Eneolithic, the Early and Middle Bronze and the Iron Age were largely inhabited by communities believed to show an elevated level of spatial mobility, often linked to their subsistence economy. In this doctoral thesis, questions concerning the mobility and migration as well as the diet and economy of these, in some sense mobile communities were approached by applying isotope analyses, particularly 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, δ15N and δ13C analyses. Adapting these methods to a study area of extremely large spatial and chronological dimensions and to a proportionally undersized sample set certainly tested the limits of the methods, but it also allowed a wide variety of questions to be answered.

Published In

Gerd Graßhoff and Michael Meyer (Eds.), eTopoi. Journal for Ancient Studies, Volume 3 (2014), Berlin: Exzellenzcluster 264 Topoi