Diagnosing individual mobility by the 87Sr/86Sr isotope methods (evidence from the Krivoe Ozero burial ground of the Bronze Age in the Southern Transurals)

This article describes isotope analysis of bone remains from a unique burial of a Bronze Age metallurgist of the Sintashta culture (late third early second millennium BC). An individual burial of a male 50-55 years of age was discovered at the Krivoe Ozero burial ground in the Southern Transurals. It contained not only animal sacrifices and funerary artifacts, but also attributes of metallurgical specialization. The 87Sr/86Sr analysis of tooth enamel (n = 9) and bone (n = 3) involved nine buried persons. This series was reliably divided into two groups, one of which (six individuals) was related by origin to the area of the burial site. The impact of diagenetic processes on the composition of bones was not detected. The second group (three individuals including the "metallurgist ”) had an 87Sr/86Sr signal which did not coincide with the local signal. The signal of bone (rib) markedly differed from the enamel of this individual's second molar. Therefore, this male spent his childhood (2-7 years of age) in a region with different geological structure. A previously created map of interpolated values of bioavailable strontium in the Southern Transurals was used to determine the zone of his origin. Comparison with the map of the background 87Sr/86Sr values indicated the direction for searchingfor the zone of origin of the individual. The closest average values were associated with the Tagil-Magnitogorsk megazone 100-120 km southwest of the burial ground. Despite the small sample size, it can be assumed that up to a third of individuals were not related by origin to the territory where the burial ground was located. Thus, it can be stated that local mobility practices had a great influence on the composition of local societies.