The project has been completed between 15/05/2020 and 3/9/2022. The work carried out has focused on i) the compilation of available data, both ethnographic and archaeological, ii) establishment of collaboration with researchers and museum staff, iii) sampling of new individuals in order to obtain new data, iv) training, and v) dissemination.
In the framework of the project, all available Sr data for Copper Age and Bronze Age Iberia have been compiled. Data for the Neolithic are currently in the process of being fully incorporated into the database. Ethnographic information has also been examined through the D-Place database and HRAF. Collaborations have been established with researchers from United States, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom, Portugal and Austria.
In the framework of the project 2 different type of analyses have been undertaken. First, new Sr data for a large number of individuals (n=73) from 3 major sites of the late 4th and 3rd millennia BC have been obtained: Humanejos (Madrid) (n=35), Valencina (Seville) (n=30) and Piedras Blancas (Málaga) (n=8), which represent a significant increase in the available information for Iberia. Second, a new technique to determine the sex of individuals - the analyses of peptides in dental enamel - has been applied to a number of samples whose Sr ratios had been previously analysed by other researchers. A very high percentage of the available Sr data could not be linked to sex information, which make the data useless for the aims of this specific project. Because of that we tried to get the sex of each sample, applying the mentioned technique. The results have been very positive, and at the time of writing this report samples have already been taken and analyzed, or are in the process of being analyzed, from the sites of Valencina (Seville) (n=48) and Piedras Blancas (n=8), while there is a collaboration in progress to analyse the teeth whose Sr values were previously obtained from the site of Perdigões (Évora).
In addition to these analyses, the researcher has trained herself in the use of the HRAF and D-Place databases, in Sr isotope analyses and in the processing of samples for C14 dating. She has also taught some courses on European Prehistory, Prehistory of Iberia and Universal Prehistory in the bachelor’s degree on History and Archaeology in the U. of Seville (Spain). Finally, the project has been disseminated through different channels: a newspaper report, a radio program, the European Researchers Night (2020, 2021 and 2022 editions), the EAA Congress, two virtual seminars organized by the Dept. of Anthropology of the U. of Iowa (United States) and the laboratory of Prehistory of the U. of Coimbra (Portugal), a seminar in the U. of Seville, an education project for Primary and Secondary School (‘JOIN US’), or a workshop in Rome funded by Wenner Gren Foundation, among others.
