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Isotopic evidence for population dynamics in the Central Italian Copper Age and Bronze Age

View ORCID ProfileMarco Romboni, View ORCID ProfileIlenia Arienzo, View ORCID ProfileMauro Antonio Di Vito, View ORCID ProfileCarmine Lubritto, View ORCID ProfileMonica Piochi, View ORCID ProfileMaria Rosa Di Cicco, View ORCID ProfileOlga Rickards, View ORCID ProfileMario Federico Rolfo, View ORCID ProfileJan Sevink, View ORCID ProfileFlavio De Angelis, View ORCID ProfileLuca Alessandri
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.30.462554
Marco Romboni
1Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
2Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Italy
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Ilenia Arienzo
3National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Vesuvius Observatory, Naples, Italy
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Mauro Antonio Di Vito
3National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Vesuvius Observatory, Naples, Italy
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Carmine Lubritto
4Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali Biologiche e Farmaceutiche (DISTABiF), Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy
5INFN Naples – CHNet
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Monica Piochi
3National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Vesuvius Observatory, Naples, Italy
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Maria Rosa Di Cicco
4Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali Biologiche e Farmaceutiche (DISTABiF), Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy
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Olga Rickards
1Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
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Mario Federico Rolfo
6Department of History, Culture and Society, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
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Jan Sevink
7Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Flavio De Angelis
1Centre of Molecular Anthropology for Ancient DNA Studies, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
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Luca Alessandri
8Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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  • For correspondence: l.alessandri@rug.nl
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Abstract

The mobility patterns in the Italian peninsula during prehistory are still relatively unknown. The excavation of the Copper Age and Bronze Age deposits in La Sassa cave (Sonnino, Italy) allowed to broaden the knowledge about some local and regional dynamics. We employed a multi-disciplinary approach, including stable (carbon and nitrogen – C and N, respectively) and radiogenic (strontium-Sr) isotopes analyses and the identification of the cultural traits in the material culture to identify mobility patterns that took place in the region. The Sr isotopic analyses on the human bones show that in the Copper Age and at the beginning of the Bronze Age, the cave was used as a burial place by different villages, perhaps spread in a radius of no more than 5 km. Stable isotopes analyses suggest the introduction of C4 plants in the diet of the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) communities in the area. Remarkably, in the same period, the material culture shows increasing influxes coming from the North. This evidence is consistent with the recent genomic findings tracing the arrival of people carrying a Steppe-related ancestry in Central Italy in MBA.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵* l.alessandri{at}rug.nl; flavio.de.angelis{at}uniroma2.it

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 01, 2021.
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Isotopic evidence for population dynamics in the Central Italian Copper Age and Bronze Age
Marco Romboni, Ilenia Arienzo, Mauro Antonio Di Vito, Carmine Lubritto, Monica Piochi, Maria Rosa Di Cicco, Olga Rickards, Mario Federico Rolfo, Jan Sevink, Flavio De Angelis, Luca Alessandri
bioRxiv 2021.09.30.462554; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.30.462554
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Isotopic evidence for population dynamics in the Central Italian Copper Age and Bronze Age
Marco Romboni, Ilenia Arienzo, Mauro Antonio Di Vito, Carmine Lubritto, Monica Piochi, Maria Rosa Di Cicco, Olga Rickards, Mario Federico Rolfo, Jan Sevink, Flavio De Angelis, Luca Alessandri
bioRxiv 2021.09.30.462554; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.30.462554

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