Tracing the dynamic life story of a Bronze Age Female

YesAncient human mobility at the individual level is conventionally studied by the diverse application of suitable techniques (e.g. aDNA, radiogenic strontium isotopes, as well as oxygen and lead isotopes) to either hard and/or soft tissues. However, the limited preservation of coexisting hard and soft human tissues hampers the possibilities of investigating high-resolution diachronic mobility periods in the life of a single individual. Here, we present the results of a multidisciplinary study of an exceptionally well preserved circa 3.400-year old Danish Bronze Age female find, known as the Egtved Girl. We applied biomolecular, biochemical and geochemical analyses to reconstruct her mobility and diet. We demonstrate that she originated from a place outside present day Denmark (the island of Bornholm excluded), and that she travelled back and forth over large distances during the final months of her life, while consuming a terrestrial diet with intervals of reduced protein intake. We also provide evidence that all her garments were made of non-locally produced wool. Our study advocates the huge potential of combining biomolecular and biogeochemical provenance tracer analyses to hard and soft tissues of a single ancient individual for the reconstruction of high-resolution human mobility.The Danish National Research Foundation; The Carlsberg Foundation, L'Oreal Denmark-UNESCO; The ERC agreement no. 26944

Isotopendiskriminierungen bei der Nitrifikation und Denitrifikation; Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Herkunfts-Zuordnung von Nitrat und Distickstoffmonoxid

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: DW 3213 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Spatial interpolation of the deuterium and oxygen-18 composition of global precipitation using temperature as ancillary variable

To aid our research in geographical forensic provenancing and food authentication we have developed high resolution prediction maps of the annual mean deuterium and oxygen-18 composition of modern precipitation. The maps have a spatial resolution of 10′ (∼ 20 × 20 km at the equator) and cover the global land surface excluding the Antarctic. To achieve this, the relation between various temperature related variables and the isotopic composition of modern precipitation was explored using a combination of high resolution climate maps and global isotope records from the GNIP database. This revealed that the isotopic composition of precipitation is somewhat better correlated to the temperature during the coldest – often driest – period of year than the temperatures during the warmest – often wettest – period of year (especially below 0 °C). Although the reason for this effect is not directly clear, the temperature during the coldest quarter is used as ancillary variable in simple kriging with varying local means (SKlm). In SKlm, only the residual isotope values from the regression with Tcq are kriging interpolated, which are then added to the predicted isotope map based on Tcq. Because the ancillary variable explains the bulk of the isotopic variation (R2 = 0.79–0.85), the deuterium and oxygen-18 maps mainly reflect the large scale global temperature pattern. More local isotope effects are accounted for by the interpolation of the residual values. This study furthermore shows that surface temperature better explains the global isotopic variation compared to a combination of latitude and altitude (R2 = 0.68–0.69). Yet, at very low temperatures (< − 40 °C) our maps might underestimate the true isotope signal. The new isotope maps and the maps of the 95% confidence intervals can be downloaded from www.waterisotopes.org

Survey of the chemical composition of 571 European bottled mineral waters

As part of the European TRACE project (Tracing Food commodities in Europe, VI FP, Contract N. 006942), this paper provides a wide-ranging survey of the chemical composition of 571 mineral waters bottled and marketed in 23 European countries, and discusses 39 compositional parameters (specific electric conductivity, pH, hardness, total alkalinity, ammonia, chloride, fluoride, nitrate, nitrite, sulphate, Ca, K, Mg, Na, Al, B, Ba, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Cu, La, Li, Lu, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sm, Sr, Tl, U, V, Yb, Zn) mainly referring to legal limits and nutritional implications. According to European legislation 58.1% of samples could be defined as ‘suitable for a low-sodium diet’ while 8.1% could be defined as ‘containing sodium’, 13.7% could be labelled as ‘containing magnesium’, 10.2% as ‘containing fluoride’, 4.9% as ‘containing chloride’, 13.5% as ‘containing sulphate’ and 17.5% as ‘containing calcium’. 2.8% of samples did not conform with European Community limits for at least one parameter (Se, NO2−, Mn, Ni, Ba, F and NO3−). About 9% of samples had boron, nitrate or nitrite levels above the legal limit existing in individual European countries

Analisi della composizione di acque minerali europee

Le acque minerali in bottiglia sono spesso preferite dai consumatori perché ritenute più salubri e controllate. Tuttavia il contenuto di molti degli elementi minerali presenti non è specificato in etichetta né regolato dal punto di vista legislativo. Il lavoro, eseguito nel contesto del progetto europeo TRACE (VI Programma Quadro), presenta la composizione di 39 parametri (conducibilità elettrica, pH, durezza, alcalinità totale, ammonio, cloruri, fluoruri, nitrati, nitriti, solfati, Ca, K, Mg, Na, Al, B, Ba, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Cu, La, Li, Lu, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sm, Sr, Tl, U, V, Yb, Zn) analizzati su 571 diverse acque minerali in bottiglia campionate sul mercato in 23 Paesi europei nell’arco di 2 anni. Più del 97% elle acque analizzate rispettava i limiti imposti dalla Direttiva Europea 2003/40/CE, solo 16 campioni non sono risultati conformi superando i limiti imposti per il Se (in 7 campioni), per i nitriti (4 campioni), per il Mn (3 campioni), per il Ni (2 campioni), per il Ba (1 campione), per i fluoruri (1 campione) o per i nitrati (1 campione)

Indagine compositiva su acque minerali italiane ed europee in bottiglia

Il lavoro, eseguito nel contesto del progetto europeo TRACE (VI Programma Quadro), presenta i dati relativi a 38 parametri chimico-analitici (conducibilità elettrica, pH, alcalinità totale, ammonio, cloruri, fluoruri, nitrati, nitriti, solfati, Ca, K, Mg, Na, Al, B, Ba, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Cu, La, Li, Lu, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sm, Sr, Tl, U, V, Yb, Zn) misurati in 571 acque minerali in bottiglia campionate sul mercato in 23 Paesi europei nell’arco di 2 anni. Limitatamente alle 186 acque di origine italiana campionate, presenta inoltre la composizione relativa ad ulteriori 22 elementi minerali in traccia (Ag, As, Be, Cr, Dy, Er, Eu, Fe, Gd, Hg, Ho, Pr, Sb, Sc, Sn, Tb, Te, Th, Ti, Tm, Y e Zr). Più del 97% delle acque italiane rispettava i limiti imposti dalla Direttiva Europea 2003/40/CE: quattro superavano i limiti imposti per l’As e una quelli per i nitrit