A01_08

A Multi-scalar Approach to Mobility: interpreting sulfur isotope values within relative and radiocarbon dating frameworks

Hamilton D¹, Sayle K¹, Steinke K²

¹University of Glasgow, East Kilbride, United Kingdom, ²University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

In the past 10 years sulfur isotope analysis has become increasingly employed to investigate the movement and mobility of pre-historic people and animals. While the questions can focus on the same type of ‘one-off’ movements often considered when using strontium and oxygen analyses to study human migrations or pastoral economies, the combination of sulfur analyses with different sampling approaches can yield novel insights into past movement of individuals and populations.

This paper aims to present some of the ways archaeologists can incorporate sulfur isotope analysis with radiocarbon chronologies, the relative dating associated with sampling skeletal elements that represent different times in an individual’s life, and even sequential sampling within an individual skeletal element. These approaches will be illustrated using data from both human and animal populations from Middle Iron Age (~400–200 cal BC) sites in southern Britain.