Kartierung lokaler bioverfügbarer Isotopien (Sr, Pb, O) und Applikation des Isotopenfingerabdruckes auf archäologische Fragestellungen

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gisela Grupe
• Subject Area: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191679530

This subproject aims at the application of the isotopic map for archaeological strata of the transalpine Inn-Eisack-Etsch passage, which has been established in the course of phase I, consisting of the stable isotopic ratios 87Sr/86Sr, delta18O, 208Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb und 206Pb/204Pb. It shall now be applied to selected archaeological problems of subprojects 4+5, 6, and 7. The research substrate nearly exclusively consists of cremated bioarchaeological finds of humans and animals, which have yet not been exploited systematically in terms of stable isotope analysis. The analysis of the data sets established until now by use of the "expectation maximization" algorithm in the course of phase I led to the result that the reduction of the original five dimensional isotopic fingerprint to four dimensions under exclusion of the thermally instable delta18O permits a sufficient definition of place of origin, which is furthermore coupled with high probabilities. While during phase I of this project, the archaeometric-geological subproject (former TP 1) and the mineralogical subproject (former TP 2) had separate research goals, both subprojects are now contextually combined in phase II. A catalogue of mineralogical criteria for the integrity of archaeological bone/tooth apatite has been established by use of a variety of mineralogical methods and is now available for a systematic validation of isotopic data.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1670: Transalpine Mobility and Culture Transfer
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Wolfgang W. Schmahl