Abstract
The European Late Iron Age (4th -1st centuries BCE) features intense trade networks and movements of people. The settling in the Italian peninsula of transalpine human groups exemplifies the dynamism of this period. Preliminary isotopic data (δ13C, δ15N and δ18O) from a subset (N=49) of individuals from Seminario Vescovile (SV-Verona, Italy 3rd -1st c. BCE) highlighted few nonlocals in this pre-Roman necropolis. Here, we expand our previous analyses of SV, by means of a larger sample (N=127, i.e., ca. 70% of buried individuals) and the inclusion of additional isotopic ratios, in order to provide a more
solid estimate of territorial mobility, and of the possible links in this community between provenance, sex, and funerary treatment. To this aim we analyzed the isotopic ratios of sulfur (δ34S; N=127 - 61 adults and 66 nonadults) and strontium (87Sr/86Sr; N=57: 51 adults and 6 nonadults) from respectively bone collagen and dental enamel. We used as proxy of locally bioavailable δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr ranges two standard deviations from the isotopic mean of archaeological faunal remains and modern plants, and checked for individuals falling outside this range. We then explored differences between sexes and funerary features in δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr by means of Mann-Whitney tests. Human δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr ratios average 5.7±1.7‰ V-CDT and 0.709756± 0.001430 respectively.
Minimum estimates of nonlocals range from 3 (2.5%) for δ34S, to 8 (14%) based on 87Sr/86Sr. At least in two cases, these show isotopic values suggesting an alpine/transalpine origin. Isotopic data do not show an association with individual sex or funerary treatment. These new results call for a revision of previous estimates of mobility at SV, and supports a link between this human group and both alpine and transalpine contexts.