Jane Evans

British Geological Survey · NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory (NIGL)

This monograph brings together for the first time comprehensive combined archaeological, technological and scientific investigations, using chemical (major, minor and trace element concentrations) and isotopic (87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd) analysis, of early medieval glass production in the Netherlands. We selected 276 samples of glass from Gennep,...

The analysis of 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios in human and nonhuman tooth enamel is used worldwide for archaeological and forensic purposes to establish if an individual is likely to have grown up in the area from which their remains were excavated. The English Peak District has produced an unusually high proportion of archaeological humans who, based o...

Archaeological isotope studies have traditionally been anthropocentric, with animals analyzed either as proxies or as baseline data in human-focused studies of diet and behavior. However, the value of analyzing animals in their own right is becoming increasingly clear for understanding human-animal-environment relationships. This chapter presents t...

Many of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe were excavated by antiquarians over one hundred years ago. Modern museum collections therefore frequently contain human remains that were recovered during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here we apply multi-isotope analysis (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) and ¹⁴C dating to eval...

Lead (Pb) isotopes provide a complementary method to other provenance tools for tracking the origin and movement of humans and animals. The method is founded in the geographic distribution of Pb isotope ratios. However, unlike the Sr isotope method that is closely linked to the lithology of underlying rocks, Pb more closely reflects the tectonic re...

Within post‐conflict communities, attempts to identify and repatriate unidentified and missing individuals poses a difficult task. As current forensic strategies commonly lack the capacity to provide region of origin assessments, forensic anthropologists/investigators are often unable to identify sources of DNA for kinship analysis. Using Thermal I...

Reconstructions of ancient mobility based on strontium isotopes are only ever as reliable as estimates for baseline values of bioavailable strontium in the study area. Current biosphere mapping for Britain suggests that there are no sizeable areas hosting ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values above 0.714 south of Cumbria. As a result, archaeological humans or animals w...

This study documents a transect of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values from a variety of plant, soil and rock samples across the ancient woodland of the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve (SFNNR) and into adjoining farmland in Britain. All samples were collected from the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group. A shift of +0.0037 in ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values is observed betwee...

This study utilises multi-isotope approaches to investigate early medieval diet and childhood origins of individuals interred in an unusual group burial from Lothian, Scotland. In 1976, the skeletal remains of nine adults and five infants were unearthed from the infill of a latrine of a bathhouse at the Roman fort at Cramond, Edinburgh. Originally...

Objectives This study examines the biological sex and geographical origins of adolescents buried at the St Mary Magdalen leprosarium (Winchester, UK). The data are combined with archaeological and palaeopathological evidence to broaden the understanding of mobility and its relationship to leprosy and leprosaria in Medieval England. Materials and M...

Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age¹. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between...

A. Douglas et al., 'Roman quarries and burials, medieval and later development: excavations at Alderman’s House 117, 119, 121 Bishopsgate and 34-37 Liverpool Street, City of London, EC26'. A. Douglas, ‘Roman quarries and burials, medieval and later development: excavations at Alderman’s House 117, 119, 121 Bishopsgate and 34-37 Liverpool Street, Ci...

Cattle were the predominant domestic animal in the Iron Age and Roman Netherlands, yet their management is still incompletely understood. Some aspects of cattle management, such as birth season and the provision of fodder, have received little or no attention so far. This paper is the first to investigate these aspects for the Iron Age and Roman Ne...

Little is known of the properties of the sarsen stones (or silcretes) that comprise the main architecture of Stonehenge. The only studies of rock struck from the monument date from the 19th century, while 20th century investigations have focussed on excavated debris without demonstrating a link to specific megaliths. Here, we present the first comp...

Samples of northern porcelain wares dating to between the 6th and 13th centuries from the three most important northern Chinese ceramic kiln sites, Gongyi, Xing and Ding have been studied in this work. The Sr isotope and chemical compositions of the ceramic glazes of these wares have been determined. Based on the scientific results we have been abl...

Leprosy is one of the most notorious diseases in history, widely associated with social stigma and exclusion. This study builds on previous work to re‐evaluate the medicohistorical evidence for social stigma in relation to leprosy. This is achieved by isotopic and palaeopathological analyses of adolescent skeletons (10 – 25 years old) from the Angl...

The expansion of isotope analyses has transformed the study of past migration and mobility, sometimes providing unexpected and intriguing results. This has, in turn, led to media attention (and concomitant misrepresentation) and scepticism from some archaeologists. Such scepticism is healthy and not always without foundation. Isotope analysis is ye...

The use of lead was ubiquitous throughout the Roman Empire, including material for water pipes, eating vessels, medicine and even as a sweetener for wine. The toxicity of lead is well established today, resulting in long‐term psychological and neurological deficits as well as metabolic diseases. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects...

Recent studies have utilised isotopic analysis for an understanding of the supply sources of lead to major Roman cities in Italy to good effect. Far less attention has been focused on contemporary rural sites in Italy or on the evidence for lead ore sources and the use and processing of lead in such locations. Rather than the more common focus on t...

The use of bioavailable strontium in different environments to provenance biological materials has become increasingly common since its first applications in ecology and archaeology almost four decades ago. Provenancing biological materials using strontium isotope ratios requires a map of bioavailable strontium, commonly known as an isoscape, to co...

In this paper, we examine the exchange of crops and livestock through the application of strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope analysis on cereal grains and faunal tooth enamel from the regional center of Uppåkra and three nearby settlements in Scania, southern Sweden, dating to the first millennium AD. Around a third of the fauna have non-local 87Sr/86Sr...

87Sr/86Sr isotope analysis was performed on 45 cattle teeth, 5 sheep/goat teeth and 2 pig teeth from two archaeological sites in the Netherlands, dating to the Iron Age and Roman period. This makes it one of the largest strontium isotope projects focusing on animals from the Netherlands - to date. An integrated approach was taken, combining the str...

We report the first Nd and Sr results for sands from inland locations in the Middle East and new Nd and Sr results for coastal sand on the Syro-Palestinian coast. When the isotopic results for Belus sands are combined with our seven new sand samples from the Lebanon we have established the likely range of isotopic signatures for Levantine sand that...

The scarcity of Romano-British human remains from north-west England has hindered understanding of burial practice in this region. Here, we report on the excavation of human and non-human animal remains ¹ and material culture from Dog Hole Cave, Haverbrack. Foetal and neonatal infants had been interred alongside a horse burial and puppies, lambs, c...

Isotope ratios of tooth enamel from ten Early Neolithic individuals buried in a long cairn at Whitwell in central England were measured to determine where they sourced their childhood diet. Five individuals have low Sr concentrations (11-66 ppm) and high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.7164-0.7212). Three individuals have relatively low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios...

The Archiud “Hânsuri” cemetery in Transylvania, Romania is the burial site of a barbarian population from the Kingdom of the Gepids (4th–7th Cent AD). Previous work examining the dietary isotope life-histories and palaeopathological profiles of the non–adults (<16 years) has been published (Crowder et al., 2019). Strontium, carbon and oxygen isotop...

An excavation was undertaken by CFA Archaeology Ltd (CFA) between August and November 2010 on the site of the new Musselburgh Primary Health Care Centre. The site, which lies to the south of Inveresk Road, is centred on NGR 33430 67224. Until its demolition, the area had been occupied by Brunton Wireworks. The Scheduled Monument of Inveresk Roman F...

Recent excavations at Musselburgh, East Lothian (Scotland) revealed twelve skeletons, radiocarbon dated to the Iron Age and Roman period. The high incidence of skeletal trauma characteristic of decapitation in those of Roman date makes this site unusual. A multi-isotope investigation of seven of these individuals was conducted to explore any link b...

Navan Fort is an iconic prehistoric Irish ceremonial centre and the legendary capital of Ulster. The fort has produced an exceptional pig-dominated faunal assemblage that also contained a barbary macaque skull. Dating from the 4th to 1st century BC, it is likely to be a ceremonial feasting centre that may have drawn people and their animals from ac...

The steppes of Central Asia have long been inhabited by communities practicing various forms of mobile pastoralism as their primary means of subsistence. This study explores the relationship between human mobility and organizational strategies at two distinct micro-regions situated within the modern-day borders of Mongolia. Our investigation was ba...

The geographic origins of livestock found at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, UK) is explored using strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18OcarbVSMOW) isotope analysis of tooth enamel as an archive of lifetime movement. The analysis of 49 cattle is augmented with data for small numbers of animals from the contemporaneous monume...

Archaeological evaluation of the Southern Courtyard of the Parliament House complex, to the south of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh’s Old Town, has provided a valuable insight into the lives, health and mortality of the inhabitants of the late medieval city. The evaluation revealed a backland area in the centre of medieval Edinburgh, with deposit...

Little synthesis of evidence for Middle Neolithic food and farming in Wiltshire, particularly in and around the Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) has been possible, until now, due to a paucity of assemblages. The excavation of a cluster of five Middle Neolithic pits and an inhumation burial at West Amesbury Farm (WAF) has prompted a review of ou...

A short cist discovered during ploughing at Knappach Toll on Balbridie Farm, Aberdeenshire held the remains of an adult accompanied by a Beaker, fragments of a copper awl and 11 struck flints. Little survived of the skeleton except for cranial fragments, but these indicate that the person had been placed with the head to the west, with the artefact...

A short cist discovered during ploughing at Knappach Toll on Balbridie Farm, Aberdeenshire held the remains of an adult accompanied by a Beaker, fragments of a copper awl and 11 struck flints. Little survived of the skeleton except for cranial fragments, but these indicate that the person had been placed with the head to the west, with the artefact...

The question of whether rock grit ingested unintentionally from querns, metates or millstones, or deliberately through pica or geophagy, is bioaccessible in the human gut has not been addressed in archaeological strontium (Sr) isotope studies. This study employed the unified bioaccessibility method and determined that ingested rock grit can provide...

The great henge complexes of southern Britain are iconic monuments of the third millennium BCE, representing great feats of engineering and labor mobilization that hosted feasting events on a previously unparalleled scale. The scale of movement and the catchments that the complexes served, however, have thus far eluded understanding. Presenting the...

This study discusses the elemental compositions and lead isotope ratios of Tang sancai glazes unearthed from the Huangpu kiln, Huangye kiln and two Tang sancai tomb sites. The various glazes feature distinct lead isotope ratios and trace element characteristics, which can be interpreted as evidence for the use of different lead ore deposits and sil...

This contribution describes the discovery and subsequent investigation of a cist in a rock-cut pit at Achavanich, Highland. Discovered and excavated in 1987, the cist was found to contain the tightly contracted skeletal remains of a young woman, accompanied by a Beaker, three flint artefacts and a cattle scapula. Initial post excavation work establ...

The nature of landscape use and residence patterns during the British earlier Neolithic has often been debated. Here we use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel, from individuals buried at the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure monument complex in Dorset, England to evaluate patterns of landscape use during the earlier Neolithic....

The impact of human mobility on the northern European urban populations during the Viking and Early Middle Ages and its repercussions in Scandinavia itself are still largely unexplored. Our study of the demographics in the final phase of the Viking era is the first comprehensive multidisciplinary investigation that includes genetics, isotopes, arch...

The aim of this study is to investigate livestock husbandry and its relationship to the mobilization of domestic animals for slaughter at large communal feasting events, in Late Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece. A multi-isotope approach is built that integrates analysis of: δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of human and animal bone collagen for understandi...

All plant and bone collagen δ13C and δ15N values obtained in Stage 1. (XLSX)

FTIR spectrum of MKS104. (TIF)

Supplementary materials and methods. Details of instrument measurement and data normalization. (DOCX)

Contextual information of bone collagen and plant samples measured in Stage 1. (XLSX)

Cattle δ13C and δ18O values obtained in Stage 2. (XLSX)

87Sr/86Sr ratios of modern vegetation from coastal northern Pieria. The samples were collected from seven geological zones within 15 km of the archaeological site. The measurements are used to establish the ‘local range’ of 87Sr/86Sr ratios. For descriptions of the zones and location of sampling points, see Fig 6. 2σ uncertainty of the 87Sr/86Sr ra...

FTIR spectrum of MKS015. (TIF)

Matching mandibular collagen δ13C and δ15N values and average intra-tooth enamel δ13C values of individuals analyzed in Stage 2. Standard deviation (SD) of collagen values indicates the instrument error attached to each measurement, while the SD of average enamel values indicates intra-tooth variability. (XLSX)

Sheep δ13C and δ18O values obtained in Stage 2. (XLSX)

Strontium (Sr) isotope analysis of archaeological crops is a potential method of provenancing and identifying the movement of crops in the past, but there remains uncertainty about whether original ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values can be obtained from carbonized buried grains. We have determined that hydrochloric acid (HCl) leaching removes some, but not all, exog...

In recent years it has been shown that the Neolithization of Europe was partly driven by migration of farming groups admixing with local hunter-gatherer groups as they dispersed across the continent. However, little research has been done on the cultural duality of contemporaneous foragers and farming populations in the same region. Here we investi...

Human Pb exposure comes from two sources: (i) natural uptake through ingestion of soils and typified by populations that predate mining activity and (ii) anthropogenic exposure caused by the exposure to Pb derived from ore deposits. Currently, the measured concentration of Pb within a sample is used to discriminate between these two exposure routes...

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...

Stable isotope analysis is firmly established as a method for the investigation of past population mobility. The distinction between local and non-local individuals within a cemetery population relies on identifying an individual’s place of childhood residence through the analysis of strontium and oxygen isotopes present in human tooth enamel. Trad...

The aim of this article is to examine the isotopic characterisation of domestic animals as it relates to birthing location and seasonality, diet, pasturing pattern, foddering and climatic conditions of herding and to determine variation between these aspects of cattle and caprine husbandry of the Neolithic Linearbandkultur (LBK) and Trichterbecherk...

Bioarchaeological evidence suggests that the site of Grimes Graves, Norfolk, characterised by the remains of several hundred Late Neolithic flint mineshafts, was a permanently settled community with a mixed farming economy during the Mid-Late Bronze Age (c. 1400 BCE – c. 800 BCE). The aim of this study was to investigate, through isotope ratio anal...

Objectives: The nature of land use and mobility during the transition to agriculture has often been debated. Here, we use isotope analysis of tooth enamel from human populations buried in two different Neolithic burial monuments, Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf, in south-east Wales, to examine patterns of land use and to evaluate where individuals obtained...

Our current approach to improving the isotope biosphere map of Britain.

We conducted a multi-isotope study of five fifth-century AD cemeteries in modern-day Hungary to determine relationships between nomadic-pastoralist incomers—the historically documented Huns and other nomadic groups—and the sedentary agricultural population of the late Roman province of Pannonia. Contemporary historical sources describe this relatio...

Analytical methods. (PDF)