The aim of this thesis is to investigate the strength and weaknesses of strontium analysis as a method to study spatial mobility on a local level in the area of Falbygden, Västergötland, Sweden during the Middle Neolithic, 3300-2800 BC. While former studies gave little information concerning the scale of spatial mobility and possible places of origin for the non-local immigrants, recent studies based on strontium analysis have shown that approximately 25% of the investigated human remains in Falbygden can be defined as non-local. These studies also confirm that animal remains from this area show traces of movement. Strontium analysis allows tracing protein based diet registered in bone and teeth tissues to specific locations and is thus a powerful means to investigate spacial mobility. It is, however, also sensitive to a variety of intervening factors like special geological circumstances, pollutions, and glacial movements in the past all leaving their imprint on the collagen from bone and teeth. Drawing on recent research this thesis shows that strontium analysis is an important tool regarding spatial mobility in the past. However, this thesis also points out the need for doing complementary analysis of other types of isotopes in order to get a more detailed and more reliable picture of spacial mobility in the area of Falbygden. The thesis also raises questions regarding the definition of ”non-local”. This study shows that 15 % of non-local people have their origin from south-west, with an approximate a range of 150-200 km. In order to get more knowledge regarding the non-local residents in Falbygden and their place of origin more research is required.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-143931 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Bretschneider, Max |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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