Mobility Histories of 7th–9th Century AD People Buried at Early Medieval Bamburgh, Northumberland, England S.E. Groves, 1 C.A. Roberts, 1 S. Lucy, 2 G. Pearson, 3 D.R. Gr € ocke, 4 G. Nowell, 4 C.G. Macpherson, 4 and G. Young 5 1 Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK 2 Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DF 3 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB T6G 2E3, Canada 4 Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Science Labs, Durham DH1 3LE, UK 5 Bamburgh Research Project, 23, Kingsdale Avenue, Blyth, Northumberland NE24 4EN, UK KEY WORDS strontium; oxygen; Anglo-Saxon; identity; health ABSTRACT Early Medieval England is described his- torically as a time when people migrated from the Conti- nent to English shores. This study tests the hypothesis that those buried in the Bowl Hole cemetery, Bamburgh, Northumberland were nonlocally born, because of its royal status. Ninety-one male and female adult, and non- adult, skeletons were studied. Isotope ratios of strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) and oxygen (d 18 O) were generated for 78 indi- viduals (28 females, 27 males, five “adults,” 18 nona- dults). The mean Sr value for human enamel was 0.71044, standard deviation (sd) 0.001, and the mean O (dw) value is 25.9&, sd 1.6&. Additionally, animal tooth enamel (mean Sr value 0.710587, sd 0.001; mean O value 26.5&, sd 1.5&), local soil (mean Sr value 0.709184, sd 0.0006), snail shells (mean Sr value 0.708888, sd 0.0001), and soil samples from a 5 km transect heading inland (mean Sr value 0.709121, sd 0.0003), were analyzed for an indication of the isotopic composition of bioavailable Sr in the modern environment and to assess the impact of sea-spray; water samples from a well, local rivers, and standing water were analyzed for local d 18 O values (mean O value 26.4&, relative to VSMOW, sd 2.8&). Over 50% of those buried at Bamburgh were nonlocal. All ages and both sexes produced “nonlocal” signatures; some suggested childhood origins in Scandinavia, the southern Mediterranean or North Africa. Stature and other indica- tors of health status indicated differences in quality of life between local and migrant groups. These differences did not extend to burial practices. Am J Phys Anthropol 000:000–000, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The Early Medieval period in England dates from the 5th century AD to the Norman Conquest in 1066. This period is frequently called the “Anglo-Saxon” period, referring to the cultural dominance of a specific group of peoples, encompassing the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, as defined by Bede, or to an unknown number of individu- als who came to the British Isles as part of migrations from continental Europe (Colgrave and Mynors, 1969; Carver, 1994). One of the major questions posed by scholars in Early Medieval archaeology in England is the extent to which the cultural changes seen during this period were due to the movement of people or the movement of ideas, a question which may begin to be addressed using isotopic analysis of mobility (Budd et al., 2004; Montgomery et al., 2005). Furnished cemeteries characterized by the presence of weapons, jewelry, and personal effects first appeared in the North West provinces of the Roman Empire in the late 4th and early 5th centuries AD (Halsall, 1995), the period dur- ing which migration or invasion of Germanic peoples from the continent into Britain is thought to have begun. By the 6th century AD local variation in the type of grave goods and burial practices associated with some individuals had developed, particularly in relation to age at death and sex. This “grammar” of burial has been used by archaeologists and historians to try to identify social groupings within pop- ulations, based on sex or gender, age, role in society, reli- gious beliefs, and regional origin (Lucy, 2000). From the early 7th century AD, changes in burial practice began to emerge in England with fewer grave goods included with the majority of burials and the emergence of isolated and elaborately furnished graves, often associated with barrow burial, particu- larly in the Peak District of Derbyshire and in East Anglia (Alcock, 1981; Higham, 1986, 1993; Geake, 1997). This change may reflect a transition in society, away from a more “open” society, where rank was based on achievement, and toward a more hierarchical “stratified” society with reduced social mobility (Pee- bles and Kus, 1977). It may also indicate less geo- graphical mobility within populations, with fewer incomers expressing a different ethnic identity through burial practice. By exploring mobility through isotopic analysis in one of these later cemeteries we can Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online ver- sion of this article. Grant sponsor: Arts and Humanities Research Council; Grant number: 119260. *Correspondence to: CA Roberts, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK. E-mail: c.a.roberts@durham.ac.uk Received 24 May 2012; accepted 10 April 2013 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22290 Published online 00 Month 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). Ó 2013 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 00:00–00 (2013)