Frank Anja B, May Jens, Sabatini Serena, Schopper Franz, Frei Robert, Kaul Flemming, Storch Susanne, Hansen Svend, Kristiansen Kristian, Frei Karin M
Department of Earth System Science, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Research, Collections and Conservation, Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 10;20(9):e0330390. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330390. eCollection 2025.
During the Late Bronze Age (ca. 11th-8th century BCE), far-reaching and extensive trade and exchange networks linked communities across Europe. The area around Seddin in north-western Brandenburg, Germany, has long been considered as at the core of one such networks. The degree of which the exchange practices involved in the circulations of goods and ideas was facilitated by people of different origins settling along the networks remains to be understood. To address this question, this study presents Sr isotope data of 29 cremated petrous bones from five neighbouring Late Bronze Age burial sites around Seddin, including the 9th century BCE Wickbold I burial mound. Modern environmental samples and archaeological soil samples were also analysed for 87Sr/86Sr to establish a bioavailable reference baseline for the region. The results suggest that modern water and archaeological soil samples appear to be best suited proxies for defining a 87Sr/86Sr baseline that can reliably be used to trace Bronze Age mobility at Seddin, while the modern soil and plant sample 87Sr/86Sr data seem to reflect changes inherent to natural carbonate leaching of the glaciogenic surface sediments over time and/or recent anthropogenic contamination, such as fertilizers, rendering their use as representative archives for bioavailable Sr in the study of past human mobility, at least in the greater Seddin region, problematic. The comparison of the petrous bone 87Sr/86Sr signatures to the proposed water Sr isotope baseline reveals an overwhelming presence of non-locals in the investigated grave sites, with only two of 22 individuals falling within the local baseline. This study suggests complex mobility patterns of the elite community around Seddin during the Late Bronze Age.
在青铜时代晚期（约公元前11世纪至8世纪），广泛而深远的贸易和交流网络将欧洲各地的社区连接起来。德国勃兰登堡州西北部塞丁周围地区长期以来被视为这类网络的核心之一。不同出身的人沿着这些网络定居，在多大程度上促进了货物和思想流通中所涉及的交流实践，仍有待了解。为了解决这个问题，本研究展示了来自塞丁周围五个相邻的青铜时代晚期墓葬遗址（包括公元前9世纪的维克博尔德一号墓葬土丘）的29块火化颞骨的锶同位素数据。还对现代环境样本和考古土壤样本进行了87Sr/86Sr分析，以建立该地区生物可利用锶的参考基线。结果表明，现代水和考古土壤样本似乎是定义87Sr/86Sr基线的最佳代理指标，该基线可可靠地用于追踪塞丁的青铜时代人口流动情况，而现代土壤和植物样本的87Sr/86Sr数据似乎反映了随着时间推移冰成表面沉积物自然碳酸盐淋滤的固有变化和/或近期人为污染（如肥料）的影响，这使得它们在过去人类流动研究中作为生物可利用锶的代表性档案使用时存在问题，至少在塞丁更大的区域是这样。将颞骨的87Sr/86Sr特征与提议的水锶同位素基线进行比较后发现，在所调查的墓地中，非本地人的比例极高，22个人中只有两人的锶同位素特征落在当地基线范围内。本研究表明，青铜时代晚期塞丁周围精英社区的人口流动模式复杂。
