2019/08/21 by Karin Margarita Frei, Sophie Bergerbrant, Karl-Göran Sjögren +8 · 3 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Bronze Age #Period (music) #Radiocarbon dating #Geography #Demography #Archaeology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219850
openalex publication_date 2019/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.