Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom.
Department of Chemistry, Research Unit: Analytical, Environmental & Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, AMGC-WE-VUB, Brussels, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 1;18(2):e0280589. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280589. eCollection 2023.
The barrow cemetery at Heath Wood, Derbyshire, is the only known Viking cremation cemetery in the British Isles. It dates to the late ninth century and is associated with the over-wintering of the Viking Great Army at nearby Repton in AD 873-4. Only the cremated remains of three humans and of a few animals are still available for research. Using strontium content and isotope ratios of these three people and three animals-a horse, a dog and a possible pig-this paper investigates the individuals' residential origins. The results demonstrate that strontium isotope ratios of one of the adults and the non-adult are compatible with a local origin, while the other adult and all three animals are not. In conjunction with the archaeological context, the strontium isotope ratios indicate that these individuals most likely originated from the area of the Baltic Shield-and that they died soon after arrival in Britain. This discovery constitutes the first solid scientific evidence that Scandinavians crossed the North Sea with horses, dogs and other animals as early as the ninth century AD.
英国德文郡希思伍德的巴罗公墓是不列颠群岛唯一已知的维京火葬墓地。它的年代可以追溯到 9 世纪晚期，与公元 873-4 年在附近雷普顿过冬的维京大军有关。现在仅剩下三个人类和一些动物的火化遗骸供研究。本文通过这三个人和三具动物（一匹马、一只狗和一头可能的猪）的锶含量和同位素比值，研究了这些个体的居住来源。结果表明，一名成年人和一名未成年个体的锶同位素比值与当地来源一致，而另一名成年人和所有三只动物则不一致。结合考古背景，锶同位素比值表明这些个体很可能来自波罗的海盾牌地区，并且他们在抵达英国后不久就去世了。这一发现首次提供了确凿的科学证据，证明早在公元 9 世纪，斯堪的纳维亚人就已经带着马、狗和其他动物穿越北海了。
