EAA 2022: Abstract

Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 was the coldest period of the Upper Pleistocene between 26.5 and 20.0 ka cal BP, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This climatic condition greatly limited the geographic distribution of human settlements and herbivorous large mammal faunal elements in Eastern Central Europe (ECE). Recent archaeological studies implied MIS2 human population withdrew the northern area of ECE (south Poland) from the foraging area and occupied the southern areas, the Carpathian Basin, Moravia, and Lower Austria. Therefore, humans ceased visiting northern ECE. A reason to restrict northbound mobility could have been the absence of a sufficient amount of prey (reindeer and wild horse) in the north, thus we supposed that the foraging area of reindeers and wild horses was also restricted to the south of ECE. To test whether these species limited the area of their habitat and changed behaviour in the LGM, we performed 87Sr/86Sr isotope analyses on reindeer (n = 14) and horse (n = 8) molars from the faunal assemblages of archaeological sites of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, and Austria. We applied laser ablation to sample the enamel. Having compared to the current geological and bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios of ECE, we expected to find matches with the archaeological samples. The results, however, were not straightforwardly supporting the theory, and thus we aim to present the difficulties we faced during the accomplishment of this research.

Strontium isotope, Laser ablation, Hunter-gatherers

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

György Lengyel^4,5

Robert Anczkiewicz²
Nina Kowalik³
Kristóf Szegedi¹
Jarosław Wilczyński³