Mobility and Life histories in the Alps - Understanding prehistoric social strategies in mountain environment

Project Information

MOLA

Grant agreement ID: 101063420

DOI

10.3030/101063420

Project closed

EC signature date 5 August 2022

Start date 1 March 2023

End date 28 February 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 172 750,08

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MOLA (Mobility and Life histories in the Alps - Understanding prehistoric social strategies in mountain environment)

Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In prehistoric times, the eastern Italian Alps (i.e. the Dolomites, Trentino-South Tyrol, and the Veneto Prealps) constituted a connecting region between Central Europe and the Mediterranean, which, despite its imposing nature, has been crossed by humans since the Mesolithic. The Adige and Eisack valleys, culminating in mid-altitude mountain passes such as Reschen and Brenner, provided essential north-south corridors for the circulation of people, objects, and ideas. The importance of the eastern Italian Alps began during the Mesolithic and increased in the Neolithic (ca. 5300-3500 BCE) as a result of the exploitation of lithic resources (chert), particularly abundant in the Monti Lessini. From Late Copper Age, half of the 3rd millennium BCE onwards, the supplying of rich copper deposits, mainly in the Valsugana Valley, further enhanced the relevance of the region.
Within the EU-funded MOLA project, bioarchaeological data derived from oxygen, sulfur, and strontium isotope analyses of cremated (only Sr) and inhumed individuals buried in the eastern Italian Alps have been integrated with advanced spatial modelling techniques.
MOLA aimed to: (1) identify how Alpine landscape conditions constrained human-environment interactions from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the eastern Italian Alps; (2) understand the spatial variations of bioavailable strontium isotopes in the eastern Italian Alps and model a high resolution strontium isoscape; (3) characterise the intra-individual, intra- and inter-site isotopic variations in inhumed and cremated human remains from Neolithic to Bronze Age burials located in the same area; (4) unravel how social strategies influenced, male and female, individual and collective, mobility and life histories as well as the use of funerary spaces during the Neolithic, the Copper Age, and the Bronze Age in this mountainous region.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A high-resolution (1 km2) biologically available strontium isoscape has been produced by statistically modelling strontium data from 204 plant samples collected from 68 locations in the eastern Italian Alps. Plant data covered as much homogeneously as possible the different geological domains, bedrock types (metamorphic, igneous, sedimentary rocks, and quaternary deposits), and formation ages, with a particular attention to alluvial and fluvioglacial sediments. High variations have been identified in the bioavailable strontium ratios (87Sr/86Sr) ranging from 0.7055 to 0.7341 as a consequence of the geological complexity of the area under study. The data modelling with the random forest algorithm has been performed at the SAiVE Laboratory, Spatio-temporal Analytics of isotopes Variations in the Environment, of the University of Ottawa (Canada). Sulfur isotope baselines have been produced sampling prehistoric faunal remains (pig and cattle) from archaeological sites located in the eastern Italian Alps and contemporary with the burial sites under study.
Oxygen and strontium isotope analyses on tooth enamel and sulfur isotope analysis on bone collagen from inhumed individuals and strontium isotope analysis on cremated bones from prehistoric individuals buried in the eastern Italian Alps have shed light in differences in palaeomobility and in the social dynamics linked to the use of funerary spaces along the 4,000 years analysed in the project. Preliminary data analysis highlights a general stationary pattern for local communities during the Neolithic. This contrasts with an increased mobility observed in later periods, in particular from the Late Copper Age (half of the 3rd millennium BCE) until the Middle Bronze Age, potentially influenced by emerging socio-economic factors such as the exploitation of copper deposits. A return to a general stationarity prevails at the end of the Bronze Age (1200-900 BCE).
Individual life histories have been investigated sampling different molars in the same inhumed individual, that formed at different stages of childhood and early adolescence, and sampling different skeletal elements in cremated remains characterised by various turnover rates (e.g. petrous bones, fragments of long diaphysis, cranium, and rib). This approach provided in-depth information on the movement dynamics and osteobiographies of specific individuals. At this regard, further insights into palaeomobility in the eastern Italian Alps have been obtained by coupling data obtained in MOLA with genetic data produced in the PrehistoricAlps project from the Institute of Mummy Studies of Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy), obtaining precise information on the palaeomobility of familial units and the dynamics of landscape use in a mountain environment.
Strontium and oxygen isotope analyses on plant (only Sr) and human samples were carried out at the Archaeology, Environmental changes & Geo-Chemistry lab facilities at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). Sulfur isotopes on faunal and human bone collagen were measured at the Ján Veizer Stable Isotope Laboratory of the University of Ottawa (Canada).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results produced in MOLA represent a significant advancement in the state of the art, focusing on various long-overlooked osteological collections using cutting-edge bioarchaeological methods. Beside the advancements in the archaeological knowledge of social dynamics among prehistoric communities inhabiting the eastern Italian Alps, which revealed different mobility patterns with an increased mobility during the Late Copper Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age, as outlined above, the MOLA project has produced other outcomes that have an impact in various fields, such as ecology, zoology, food industry. The high resolution biologically available strontium isoscape for the eastern Italian Alps, generated using a machine learning approach, is a powerful tool for other researchers working in the same area. It can serve as a basis for tracking archaeological and modern animal mobility patterns, assessing the possible origins and authenticity of food types, and tracing the origin of timber.
Additionally, the sulfur data have displayed larger variations than expected in the eastern Italian Alps, with δ34S values ranging from -2.90 to +11.48. Lower and negative values are clustered in the Adige valley, likely reflecting local palaeonvironmental conditions. The construction of sulfur baselines for this region, based on domestic faunal remains (pigs and cattle) from various Neolithic to Bronze Age archaeological sites located in the eastern Italian Alps, including key sites such as Ganglegg, will serve as a reference for future studies dealing with sulfur isotopes.

Fig. 2. G. Capuzzo and Diego E. Angelucci collecting plants for Sr isotope analysis in the Alps.

Fig. 1. Giacomo Capuzzo sampling tooth enamel and cremated bone from alpine prehistoric burials.