EXPLORING MOBILITY PATTERNS AND BIOLOGICAL
AFFINITIES IN THE SOUTHERN AEGEAN: FIRST INSIGHTS
FROM EARLY BRONZE AGE EASTERN CRETE
by Sevi Triantaphyllou*, Efthymia Nikita
†
and Thomas Kador
‡
*Department of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
†
Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens
‡
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol
This paper presents the results of a pilot project which combines, for the first time, biodistance and strontium isotope analyses in
the study of human skeletal remains from Early Bronze Age Crete (third millennium bc). Information from these analyses
offers, in a direct way, insights into the biological distance, and consequently the gene flow and mobility patterns, among
human populations in eastern Crete. The results are synthesised with the evidence of funerary practices in order to explore
the nature of interaction among communities in eastern Crete. The biodistance analysis supports a strong genetic affinity
between the populations represented at the two Kephala Petras skeletal assemblages, while the results of the available
strontium isotope analysis favour their local origin; thus the combined results suggest the lack of significant population
influx. The biological distance of the two chronologically contemporary populations at Livari-Skiadi, also manifesting
completely different patterns of mortuary disposal, is of particular interest since it contrasts with the Petras situation and
raises issues of intra-community distinctions, cultural and biological.
INTRODUCTION
The mobility of materials, ideas and technological knowledge has recently attracted the attention of
historical and archaeological research. Contrary to the cultural–historical approach to archaeology,
where ‘cultural’ entities are assumed to correspond to particular groups of people (Trigger ),
recent studies of identity trace the movement of material and humans in order to offer
interpretations of the scale and nature of such interactions (Zakrzewski ). Powerful tools,
such as biodistance studies, combined with biomolecular and chemical analyses, can provide
new insights into the behaviour of past populations (e.g. Gilbert et al. ; Brown and Brown
; Pinhasi and Stock ; Shapiro and Hofreiter ). Skeletal morphology is, in part,
genetically determined and it is well established that analyses of metric and non-metric traits can
be used to explore the biological/genetic relationship between populations (e.g. Betti et al. ;
Irish ; Coppa et al. ; Nikita, Mattingly and Lahr ; Ricaut et al. ). Strontium
isotopes detected from dental and skeletal tissues can provide valuable information regarding the
movement of people during the course of a person’s lifetime (e.g. Bentley ; Montgomery
and Evans ; Bentley et al. ; Giblin et al. ). This paper presents the results of a pilot
project where such methods were applied, for the first time, to human skeletal remains of the
third and early second millennia BC from Crete; the aim is to distinguish the scale and the
character of gene flow in the study area. It should be noted that the term ‘gene flow’ refers to
the movement of people across the landscape and the resulting interbreeding between members
of different groups (Stojanowski ; Relethford ; Weiss and Buchanan ). In this
paper, gene flow is deduced by assessing the biological distance among the population samples
under study, and mobility patterns are revealed through analysis of strontium isotopes within Crete.
The Annual of the British School at Athens, (), , pp. – © The Council, British School at Athens,
doi:./S