Lead Isotope Analysis of Tooth Enamel from a Viking Age Mass Grave in Southern Britain and the Constraints it Places on the Origin of the Individuals

Lead analysis of tooth enamel from individuals recovered from a Viking Age burial pit in southern England provides further evidence for their childhood origins outside Britain. All except one of the men have very low Pb concentrations that exclude anthropogenic Pb exposure. Strontium and oxygen isot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inArchaeometry Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 859 - 869
Main Authors Evans, J. A., Pashley, V., Chenery, C. A., Loe, L., Chenery, S. R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.08.2018
Subjects
Anthropogenic factors
childhood origin tooth enamel
England
Isotopes
Lead
Magma
Oxygen isotopes
Pb isotopes
Poland
Scandinavia
Strontium
Viking Age
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:Lead analysis of tooth enamel from individuals recovered from a Viking Age burial pit in southern England provides further evidence for their childhood origins outside Britain. All except one of the men have very low Pb concentrations that exclude anthropogenic Pb exposure. Strontium and oxygen isotope compositions identify a core group of men who have Pb isotope compositions of 208Pb/206Pb = 2.065 ± 0.021 (n = 20, 2SD) that, when compared with data from European soils, appear to exclude a childhood in the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland, whereas areas of Northern continental Europe cannot be excluded.
ISSN:0003-813X
1475-4754
DOI:10.1111/arcm.12361