Continuity or colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Janet MontgomeryC A Roberts

Abstract

The adventus Saxonum is a crucial event in English protohistory. Scholars from a range of disciplines dispute the scale and demographic profile of the purported colonizing population. The 5th-7th century burial ground at West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, is one of the few Anglian cemeteries where an associated settlement site has been identified and subjected to extensive multidisciplinary postexcavation study. Skeletal and grave good evidence has been used to indicate the presence of Scandinavian settlers. A small, preliminary study using lead and strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel, mineralized in early childhood, from Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (n = 8), Iron Age (n = 2), and Early Anglo-Saxon (n = 32) skeletons, was carried out to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that lead provides dissimilar types of information in different time periods. In post-Roman England, it appears to reflect the level of exposure to circulated anthropogenic rather than natural geological lead, thus being a cultural rather than geographical marker. Consequently, only strontium provides mobility evidence among the Anglian population, whereas both isotope systems do so in pre-Roman periods. Strontium data imply the presence o...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 20, 2016·Nature Communications·Stephan SchiffelsRichard Durbin
Oct 22, 2015·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Christina StantisMichael P Richards
Dec 4, 2008·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Kelly J Knudson, Christina Torres-Rouff
Nov 6, 2012·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Julia BeaumontJanet Montgomery
Jun 6, 2013·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·S E GrovesG Young
Jan 17, 2013·Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : RCM·Michael BuckleyJanet Montgomery
Jun 8, 2014·The Science of the Total Environment·George D Kamenov, Brian L Gulson
Jul 13, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Christine Schuh, Cheryl A Makarewicz
Feb 20, 2007·Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz·Rachel K WentzGlen H Doran
Oct 17, 2019·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Jason E LaffoonHannes Schroeder
Sep 6, 2008·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Marie Louise S JørkovNiels Lynnerup
Feb 2, 2021·Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences·Rachel SimpsonTamara L Varney

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