Experience in Estimating Individual Mobility of People from the Cemeteries of the Medieval Rus Population Using Data of Isotopic Analysis of Tooth Enamel

The relevance of using new methodological possibilities to study migration processes in evolvement of Medieval Rus population does not cause any doubts. Use of data on the strontium isotopic composition to identify first-generation migrants is one of lifetime analysis tools for studying population mobility. In this paper we review individual mobility of the population in two regions of North-Eastern Rus, namely, Beloozero and Suzdal Opolye, in the 11th-13th centuries (Nefedyevo I, Nikolskoe III and Gnezdilovo 12 cemeteries). This paper contains data on the 87Sr 86Sr % values in the enamel of teeth that develop at an early age, in adolescence and at juvenile age. These data can help identify first-generation migrants who resettled as a child or adolescent. The analysis was based on the samples of crown enamel of 28 teeth from 14 individuals. These pairs were used to compare the 87Sr/86Sr % values in the incisor (the first molar) and the third molar. We identified high mobility of some individuals at an early age which needs to be studied further. The first results suggest a higher mobility of individuals buried in the graves which were made in the earlier periods of these sites occupation. If we had reduced our efforts to one sample from each individual we would have been unable to discuss substantive issues of mobility at an early age or in adolescence and would have been forced to simply state that there were first-generation migrants. The results obtained show that the individuals who, in our view, were ‘first-generation' migrants resettled when they were children.