Mapping human mobility during the third and second millennia BC in present-day Denmark

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 21;14(8):e0219850. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219850. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

We present results of the largest multidisciplinary human mobility investigation to date of skeletal remains from present-day Denmark encompassing the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Through a multi-analytical approach based on 88 individuals from 37 different archaeological localities in which we combine strontium isotope and radiocarbon analyses together with anthropological investigations, we explore whether there are significant changes in human mobility patterns during this period. Overall, our data suggest that mobility of people seems to have been continuous throughout the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. However, our data also indicate a clear shift in mobility patterns from around 1600 BC onwards, with a larger variation in the geographical origin of the migrants, and potentially including more distant regions. This shift occurred during a transition period at the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age at a time when society flourished, expanded and experienced an unprecedented economic growth, suggesting that these aspects were closely related.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Denmark
  • Human Migration / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans

Grants and funding

This research was made possible through the support of The ERC Advanced Grant agreement no. 269442 (The RISE to KK); the Carlsberg Foundation “Semper Ardens” research CF18-0005 (Tales of Bronze Age People to KMF); the Carlsberg Foundation research grant CF15-0878 (Tales of Bronze Age Women to KMF); and the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences Grant M16-0455:1 (Towards a New European Prehistory to KK).