Strontium Isotope MC-ICP-MS Analysis of Hair Strands from Human Mummies: Transhumance Pastoralism of Early-Modern Individuals between Northern and Central Italy

Mammal hair is formed by a scleroprotein, namely keratin, composed by some major elements (C, N, H, O, S), but including also trace elements such as Sr, Pb, Fe, K, Na and Ca. The latter are fixed through diet and exposure to exogenous sources, mainly water and air. Given that the average human scalp hair growth is ~1 cm/month, timeresolved hair sampling yields information about a specific period, reflecting the elemental and isotopic composition of the diet and environment at that time. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of mammal tissues is generally directly correlated to the local bioavailable strontium, providing the chance to reconstruct the individual movements in a given time interval. In this work, we developed our protocol to analyse low-Sr concentration mammal hairs for their 87Sr/86Sr ratio by Neptune MC-ICP-MS. We tested the method on a modern individual who traveled cyclically between Italy and Brazil. Hair strands were sampled with a time resolution of 1 to 2 months, yielding time resolved isotopic variations from the highest radiogenic ratios of the São Paulo area to the lower ones of Modena waters. Thus, the Sr analysis of hair has been applied to human mummies (Roccapelago, Modena, 16th-18th cent.). Hair strands were cut in several sub-samples with different length (time-resolution) in relation to the amount of available material. The best achieved time-resolution was of 3 months in a 12-cm-long strand. These samples revealed cyclical human movements from Roccapelago to the high radiogenic area of the Tuscan Magmatic Province. Historical documents attest a high frequency of human seasonal travels to Tuscany, up to the Grosseto area, likely linked to the exploitation of transhumance pastoralism

Suspected limited mobility of a Middle Pleistocene woman from Southern Italy: strontium isotopes of a human deciduous tooth

We present the Sr isotopic composition of enamel of the most ancient deciduous tooth ever discovered in Italy to assess human mobility in Middle Pleistocene. Reconstructing ancient mobility is crucial for understanding human strategy at exploiting temporally and spatially patchy resources, with most studies focusing on indirect evidences, ultimately affecting our interpretation on hominin territoriality and energetic costs invested by hominin groups. Here, we use the high spatial resolution and micro-destructivity options offered by the Laser Ablation Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry technique, to determine the (87)Sr/ (86)Sr intra-tooth variability of a human deciduous incisor from the Middle Pleistocene layers of the Isernia La Pineta site (Italy). We compared these data with the Sr isotopic signature of local micro-mammals, the broadest home-range of the macro-mammals and with modern plant samples. Our study reveals that while macro-mammals have possibly migrated through the landscape for up to 50\u2009km, the pregnant woman from Isernia was probably local, given that the isotopic ratio of the enamel falls within the local range and is comparable with the signature of the local plants in a radius of 10\u2009km. This is the first case study of Sr isotopic composition determination in such ancient deciduous tooth

Melt-Rock Interaction at Mantle Conditions: Evidences from Finero Gabbroic Dykes

The Finero Phlogopite-Peridotite (FPP) is a worldwide famous mantle massif recrystallized through several events of melt migrations. These events have enriched the FPP in hydrous phases and crustal components and have been commonly interpreted as related to a subduction/post orogenic geodynamic setting. The last of these metasomatic events has produced composite sapphirine-bearing gabbroic dykes, interpreted as the result of the interaction of channelized migrating melts with the host rock in a two-steps intrusion process. In the first step, the melt reacted with the FPP rocks and evolved by fractional crystallization of amphibole cumulates. In the second step, the evolved melt reacted with the first cumulates producing magmatic sapphirine and segregating plagioclase-rich bands containing abundant apatites at the nucleus of the dike. New data suggest, however, a more complex evolution. New O and in situ Sr isotopes on minerals suggest that the gabbroic dykes have evolved from melt(s) that progressively were contaminated by the interaction with the FPP rocks during its fractionation. The δ18O increases from 5.81‰ in orthopyroxenes at the dykes border to ~6.90‰ in cumulitic amphiboles and 8.60‰ in plagioclases. The 87Sr/86Sr values for plagioclase and coexisting apatite show isotopic disequilibrium between the two phases (plagioclases at 0.70474 ± 0.00033, n=23, and apatites at 0.70369 ± 0.00025, n=6). These isotopic variations could be explained with an AFC-like process between mantle-derived melt(s) and a crustal-enriched host (the FPP). In situ Sr isotope analyses were performed at the CIGS laboratory of the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia using a Thermo Fisher Scientific Neptune™ coupled to a 213 nm Nd:YAG laser ablation system (New Wave Research™). During the analytical sessions a new in house plagioclase reference material for Rb-Sr systematic, named BC84, has been successfully tested and used

Constraining the fluid source of Miocene seep carbonates using radiogenic Sr isotopes (Corella outcrop, northern Apennines, Italy)

Analisi isotopiche e biostratigrafiche su corpi carbonatici metanoderivati dell'Appennino settentrional

Machine learning-based Sr isoscape of southern Sardinia: A tool for bio-geographic studies at the Phoenician-Punic site of Nora

Since prehistoric times, the island of Sardinia—in the western Mediterranean—has played a leading role in the dynamics of human population and mobility, in the circulation of raw materials and artefacts, idioms and customs, of technologies and ideas that have enriched the biological, linguistic and cultural heritage of local groups. For the Phoenician and Punic periods (from the 9th to the 3rd centuries BCE), the ancient site of Nora—in southern Sardinia—represents an emblematic case in the study of migratory phenomena that occurred on the Island from the Iron Age until the Roman conquest. Despite the importance of exploring (and characterising) such movements from a wider bio-cultural perspective, the application of bio-geochemical tools for geographical provenance to the ancient skeletal populations of Sardinia is yet scarce. The present work is the first step towards filling this gap with the development of the first isoscape of southern Sardinia using new bioavailable Sr isotope data and a machine-learning approach. From a geolithological point of view, Sardinia is rather heterogeneous and requires detailed studies to correctly assess the distribution of the isotopic signature of bioavailable Sr. The random forest model employed here to construct the Sr isoscape uses several external environmental and geological variables. The most important predictors are related to age and bedrock type, with additional input from local soil properties. A 10-fold cross-validation gives a mean square error of 0.0008 and an R-squared of 0.81, so the model correctly predicts the 87Sr/86Sr ratio of unknown areas. By using a Bayesian provenance assignment workflow, we tested the isoscape here produced to determine the geographic origin and the mobility of archaeological and modern fauna collected from the Phoenician-Punic site of Nora and the surrounding Pula Plain. Our results indicate that archaeological sheep and goats (87Sr/86Sr < 0.7090) are compatible with areas close to Nora and Pula Plain, in agreement with archaeological evidence of pastoralism in those areas. Modern wild and domesticated fauna (87Sr/86Sr > 0.7090) show compatibility with several natural and anthropogenic locations in southern Sardinia, as expected based on modern species distribution data. Finally, we discuss the large Sr isotopic variability of the Nora baseline, where human mobility studies of human cremated and inhumed individuals are currently underway

Reconstruction of upper limb soft-tissue defects after sarcoma resection with free flaps: A systematic review

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Upper limb preservation after soft tissue sarcoma (STS) surgical excision is now the accepted gold standard and it often requires reconstruction with free flaps. The purpose of this review is to summarize current literature on upper limb reconstruction with free flaps after STS resection.METHODS: A systematic review was performed in July 2019 in PubMed and MedLine Ovid databases according to the PRISMA guidelines.RESULTS: A total of 17 studies were included in the final analysis, with 132 patients. The most common diagnosis was Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma. The most frequent timing of flap coverage was immediate. The success rate was almost always 100%. The length of follow-up was reported in 11 studies with a range of 2-187 months. The most commonly reported patient-centered outcome was the MSTS Score. Based on the evidence of the literature collected, we divided the upper limb into four parts (shoulder, elbow and arm, forearm and wrist, and hand) and described the most common and functional free flaps used for reconstruction after STS resection.CONCLUSIONS: Free flaps in the treatment of STS of the upper extremity have a good overall outcome, with a low postoperative complication rate. A wide array of free flaps is available for reconstruction, and the choice of flap is based on defect size, types of tissue required, postoperative functional goal, and surgeon preference. A greater degree of standardization is needed in the reporting of patient-centered outcomes to facilitate future comparative studies