Tracing population mobility in the Aegean using isotope geochemistry: a first map of local biologically available 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures Argyro Nafplioti * British School at Athens, Athens, GR-10676, Greece article info Article history: Received 7 March 2010 Received in revised form 22 January 2011 Accepted 15 February 2011 Keywords: 87 Sr/ 86 Sr Biologically available strontium Migration Residential mobility Geographical origin Aegean Animal dental enamel abstract Strontium isotope ratio ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) analysis of archaeological human skeletal remains is an efficient method of investigating past population movement and residential mobility by determining probable geographical origins for the individuals examined. For this to be achieved, however, a map of biologically available 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures across the region investigated is needed. This paper presents a first such map for the Aegean, based on 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values recovered mainly from archaeological animal dental enamel and modern snail shells from sites largely distributed in the southern part of this region. Although not exhaustive, this comprehensive dataset of local biologically available 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures shows a marked difference between Mainland sites of the Pindos and Parnassos zones and the islands of south-eastern Aegean crossed by the Sub-Pelagonian zone (0.70808e0.70869), and sites in the central Cyclades and the north-eastern Aegean islands falling into the Attic-Cycladic metamorphic belt and the Vardar zone, respectively (0.70926e0.71187). Biologically available 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from sites on central Euboea in the Pelagonian zone, south-eastern Attica and the western Cyclades in the Attic-Cycladic metamorphic belt, and on Crete in the Gavrovo zone are also relatively high (0.70853e0.70931), but lower than those recorded for the central Cyclades and the north-eastern Aegean. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Although isotope geochemistry has successfully been employed in studies of past population movement and residential mobility principally in America and northern Europe over the past three decades (e.g. Price et al., 1994; Price et al., 2000, 2002; Bentley, 2006; Evans et al., 2006a, 2006b; Slovak et al., 2009), it is only recently that it began to be used in archaeological research in the Aegean (Nafplioti, 2007, 2008, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Richards et al., 2008), pioneered by the author. However, the single biggest obstacle to the further development of this research field in the Aegean remains the lack of a map of biologically available isotope signatures in the region, such as those generated by Bentley and Knipper (2005) for southern Germany, Evans et al. (2009) for the Isle of Skye (Scotland), and Evans et al. (2010) for Britain. This paper presents and discusses the first comprehensive set of high-quality data on biologically available 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures in the Aegean to make it readily accessible to the research community and facilitate further advancement of this research field. Owing to the paucity of background research and of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr published data for Aegean rocks, the dataset presented in this paper comprises necessary groundwork for research into population mobility in the Aegean using 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analysis. Further, this paper discusses the potential of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analysis of archaeological skeletal material for investigating questions of geographical origin and population movement in the Aegean context, and sets the scene for further developments in research in this field by defining potential future research directions. The data presented here are the result of various case studies carried out by the author as part of her doctoral and ongoing postdoctoral research over the past five years. They comprise 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from samples of archaeological or modern animal skeletal tissue from twenty-one (21) sites in the Aegean, plus 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from samples of archaeological human bone only, for an additional five (5) sites. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Principles of analysis Studies of human population movement and residential mobility use 87 Sr/ 86 Sr analysis of human skeletal tissues as a proxy of local geology to determine the geographical origin of the indi- viduals examined and distinguish between locals and non-locals at * Tel.: þ30 6970219454. E-mail address: argyro.nafplioti@googlemail.com. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.021 Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2011) 1560e1570