Exploring the potential of the strontium isotope tracing system in Denmark

Migration and trade are issues important to the understanding of ancient cultures. There are many ways in which these topics can be investigated. This article provides an overview of a method based on an archaeological scientific methodologydeveloped to address human and animal mobility in prehistory, the so-called strontium isotope tracing system. Recently, new research has enabled this methodology to be further developed so as to be able to apply it to archaeological textileremains and thus to address issues of textile trade. In the following section, a brief introduction to strontium isotopes in archaeology is presented followed by a state-of-theart summary of the construction of a baseline to characterize Denmark’s bioavailable strontium isotope range. The creationof such baselines is a prerequisite to the application of the strontium isotope system for provenance studies, as they define the local range and thus provide the necessary background to potentially identify individuals originating from elsewhere.Moreover, a brief introduction to this novel methodology for ancient textiles will follow along with a few case studies exemplifying how this methodology can provide evidence of trade

January 30, 1986

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Iron and Viking Age grapes from Denmark: vine seeds found at the royal complexes by Lake Tissø

Since the mid 1990s the National Museum of Denmark and Museum Vestsjælland have conducted excavations on two royal residential complexes from late Germanic Iron Age and Viking Age. During the excavations a range of samples were collected for macrofossil analysis. In two of these samples two seeds of vine grapes dated to the late Germanic Iron Age and the Viking Age were discovered. So far they are the oldest grape seeds discovered in the present Danish area. One of the seeds was chosen for strontium isotope analysis in order to determine the provenance of the grape. The strontium isotopic composition of the grape seed yielded a 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.71091 (±0.00004; 2σ) which falls within Denmark’s strontium isotopic baseline range indicating that the seed could be of local origin. Archaeological and historical evidence seem to point to that people in the Iron and Viking Age knew and consumed wine and even had access to gain potential know-how related to wine production. Hence, even though it is not possible to determine whether the two seeds found at Tissø are a result of either grape consumption (fresh or dried) or used for wine production, these finds point to that grapes and probably wine were products consumed by the elite at Tissø

Bronze Age wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish textiles

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A ritual site with sacrificial wells from the Viking Age at Trelleborg, Denmark

The promontory facing Storebælt with the well-known circular Viking Age military fortress of Trelleborg erected by Harold Bluetooth in AD 980/981 seems to have been an important ceremonial space prior to the erection of the fortress and contemporary with a nearby high status settlement dated to the seventh to the eleventh century. This study presents new cross-disciplinary investigations focusing on three sacrificial well-like structures (47, 50 and 121) from the pre-Christian Viking Age at Trelleborg. Two of the sacrificial wells (47 and 121) included the only skeletal remains of four children hitherto recovered from Danish Viking Age wells. The strontium isotope results of the four children point to local provenance. However, the results of each well seem to pair up in a systematic way pointing to that the children might come from two different key surrounding areas at Trelleborg. Furthermore, the three wells contained animal remains of primarily domestic livestock partly representing consumption waste from either profane or ritual meals deriving from, for example, blót activities. Well 47 produced a young he-goat and well 121 a hindlimb of an above-average-size young horse, a large part of a young cow and a large dog. Altogether intentional offerings deposited while still enfleshed and interpreted to have served as propitiatory sacrifices to honour or appease the gods and to ensure fertility. This research provides new information that enlightens the formation processes underlying accumulation of cultural deposits in features such as ritual wells, in the period prior to Christianity