Strontium and oxygen isotope analysis reveals changing connections to place and group membership in the world's earliest village societies
Plug, Jo-Hannah (University of Liverpool. Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology)
Blevins, Kelly E. (Durham University. Department of Archaeology)
Abbès, Frédéric (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux)
Akkermans, Peter M. M. G. (Leiden University. Faculty of Archaeology)
Bach Gómez, Anna 1977- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Chambrade, Marie-Laure (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (França))
Chamel, Bérénice (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux)
Coqueugniot, Eric (Université de Lyon II)
Molist, Miquel 1956- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Orange, Marie (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux)
van der Plicht, Johannes (University of Groningen (Països Baixos). Faculty of Science and Engineering)
Galata, Stamatia (Liverpool John Moores University. School of Biological and Environmental Sciences)
Nowell, Geoffrey (Durham University. Department of Archaeology)
Montgomery, Janet (Durham University. Department of Archaeology)
Pearson, Jessica (University of Liverpool. Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology)
Fernández-Domínguez, Eva (Durham University. Department of Archaeology)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	The Neolithic of southwest Asia, 11,600-7500 years ago, charts the earliest establishment of permanent settlements and changes in food procurement and community structure that transformed human lifeways. Our understanding of the social behaviors that impacted these shifting connections to place and group membership can be improved by studying how people moved across landscapes. Parts of southwest Asia have shown contrasting evidence for mobility practices, but little is known from the Northern Levant, a region key to the development and transmission of agriculture and settled life, particularly for the latest Neolithic stages. We measured strontium and oxygen isotope values in 71 human teeth from five archeological sites in Syria, spanning the entire Neolithic period. A shift to broadly local communities following the establishment of village life suggests consolidation of group membership and deep connections to particular locales, perhaps aimed at social cohesion. Mobility then increases in the later Neolithic, explaining the high degree of cross-regional connectivity witnessed archeologically. A sex-bias towards female mobility during this period may point towards the formation of patrilocal traditions. At our sites both non-local and local individuals were afforded similar burial treatment, suggesting inclusivity in group membership and mobile individuals connecting to new places in the landscape.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Population dynamics ; Psychology and behaviour ; Socioeconomic scenarios ; Stable isotope analysis
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 15 Núm. 1 (2025) , Article number 34598, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-18134-3
PMID: 41044333

15 p, 2.7 MB

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