Prehistoric human migration in the Linearbandkeramik of Central Europe.

PRICE, T. DOUGLAS ; BENTLEY, R. ALEXANDER ; LUNING, JENS 等

The Linearbandkeramik (LBK), dating from approximately 5700 to 5000 BC,(1) has traditionally been regarded as the initial phase of the Neolithic of Central Europe and a classic example of prehistoric migration. Its origin is thought to have been in the Starcevo-Koros culture of the Hungarian Plain (Lenneis et al. 1996; Gronenborn 1999). The earliest radiocarbon dates for LBK across its distribution seemed almost identical, suggesting a rapid expansion over hundreds of kilometres from the middle Danube in Hungary to the Rhine in the west, to central Poland to the north and the northern Ukraine to the east. The fast spread of LBK farming and the overall homogeneity of material remains, as seen in house construction, settlement plan, burials, incised pottery, stone artefacts and other items, have often been interpreted as evidence of migration (Luning 1988). The arrival of domesticated plants and animals with the LBK also fits a concept of population movement. Explanations have ranged from an abrupt `wave-of-advance' colonization (Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza 1984) to community fissioning (Bogucki 1988).

Investigations in the last 15 years, however, have challenged this conventional view. New radiocarbon dates show that the LBK began in Hungary around 5700 BC and arrived at the Rhine about 5500 BC, suggesting a somewhat more gradual movement (Lenneis et al. 1996). Detailed analyses of the earliest LBK artefactual materials have documented substantial heterogeneity (Gronenborn 1999, Luning et al. 1989). Other studies have revealed the presence of forager-herder/horticulturists in Central and Western Europe prior to the appearance of the LBK, a time known as the Terminal Mesolithic. During this period a new pottery tradition emerged, known as `La Hoguette', thought to have derived from very early Neolithic groups in the south of France (Luning et al. 1989; Jeunesse 1987). Finally, some evidence for even earlier pre-LBK cultivation in Central Europe comes from radiocarbon dates of c. 6500 BC for domesticated flax seeds and cereal pollen from the Zurich region (Erny-Rodmann et al. 1997) and for small-scale animal husbandry and possibly horticulture around the Rhine--Main confluence by 5800 BC (Schweizer 2000).

The indigenous adoption of agriculture in Central Europe is now sometimes invoked as an alternative to colonization to explain the spread of the LBK (Tillmann 1994; Whittle 1996; Price 2001). The facts used to examine the question of colonization vs indigenous adoption have traditionally come from artefacts and architecture. However, such items and ideas can be traded, stolen or copied as well as carried, rendering them less reliable in evidence. In this study we examine human skeletal remains directly for indications of movement using isotopic signals. Strontium isotope analysis is a new method to `provenience' prehistoric human skeletons and determine migrants in a population. Strontium isotopes in prehistoric human teeth and bones provide a geochemical signature of the place of birth and the place of death respectively. Differences in the strontium isotope ratio between the bone and tooth enamel of the same individual indicate a change in residence during life (Ericson 1989; Price et al. 1994).

Our discussion begins with some general information about the Linearbandkeramik and more specific details on the LBK in the Rhine Valley where our samples were taken. We then outline the principles of strontium isotope analysis and the relevant geology of the Rhine Valley, followed by a description of two cemeteries there. Finally, we present the results and interpretation of the strontium isotope data. There are differences between tooth and bone in some skeletons indicating migration. Differences in the incidence and sex of migrants between the Middle and Late LBK suggest that the nature of movement changed over time.

The Linearbandkeramik

The chronology of the LBK has been recently revised (FIGURE 1). Following its initial appearance in Hungary around 5700 BC, the earliest LBK (phase Ia) spreads east, north and west. In the west, a chronological sequence has been defined that begins with the Early LBK (5500-5375 BC). The Middle LBK in the west overlaps with the Early phase in the east and continues until 5125 BC. The Late phase of the LBK in the west ends approximately 5000 BC as distinctly local Neolithic cultures emerged across the region.

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LBK and La Hoguette in the Rhine Valley

The westward expansion of the LBK reached the Rhine and Neckar Valleys about 5500 BC (Schweizer 2000). This area formed the western frontier of the LBK for two centuries (FIGURE 2), as expansion apparently paused while contacts with local forager--herder/ horticulturalists were established. The LBK then spread during the Middle phase around 5300 BC into the Alsace and the Rhineland, where the advance appears to have halted again.

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Present evidence indicates that the middle 5th millennium BC in southwestern Central Europe witnessed the presence of two different groups (Gronenborn 1999; Jeunesse 2000):

1 La Hoguette -- local Mesolithic peoples who had begun to practise horticulture and herding several hundred years before the arrival of LBK, and

2 the Linearbandkeramik itself -- most likely immigrants originally from the western Hungary or southeastern Slovakia. Some evidence points to co-existence and exchange between these two distinct archaeological cultures.

Archaeological information from the middle Rhine Valley suggests that the earliest LBK settlers were immigrants and that Terminal Mesolithic groups were gradually assimilated into these communities (Gronenborn 1990; Luning et al. 1989). It does appear that foragers and farmers were separate, ethnically distinct and co-existed in the region for some time. For example, at the Bavans rockshelter in the Doubs Valley, south of the Vosges Mountains, La Hoguette remains were replaced by distinct LBK materials (Jacottey & Daval 1997). This implies that farmers and forager/horticulturalists in Southwest Germany and Eastern France were separated by a geographic boundary between the Rhine Valley, the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest uplands.

Initial Mesolithic--Neolithic contact was probably cooperative and indigenous hunter--gatherers may actually have been drawn to LBK settlements for trade. Some exchange networks in the region date to Mesolithic times or earlier and operated already during the 8th millennium BC. Evidence for the exchange of stone tools and pottery between Terminal Mesolithic populations and early farmer populations west of the Rhine valley comes from imported La Hoguette ceramics and Maas Valley flint at early LBK sites. At Bruchenbrucken, an Early LBK site in the Rhine-Main area (Phase Ic), the presence of Mesolithic blades and triangular points made in a northwest European style also indicate Terminal Mesolithic--Neolithic interaction (Gronenborn 1999). Trapezoidal points of raw materials from the Paris Basin are found in LBK contexts in the Rhine valley at sites such as Zimmersheim, Ensisheim, Bischoffsheim and Spechbach-Le-Bas (Mauvilly 1997).

It is important to consider how long the Mesolithic forager--herder/horticulturalists remained independent in southwestern Germany. There must have been Terminal Mesolithic groups that continued their traditional way of life contemporary with the LBK (Gronenborn 1990). Their settlements must have been rather ephemeral, since so few of them have been discovered. There is a clear decline in the number of Late Mesolithic sites after 6700 BC, compared to the Early Mesolithic. The Black Forest area has even been described as `abandoned' during the Late Mesolithic (Jochim 1998). In fact, there are only a few hunting/fishing camps in the 6th millennium BC in southwestern Germany, all of them situated along river courses or lakeshores, clearly pre-dating the earliest LBK.

Strontium isotope analysis

The above discussion is based on the comparison of artefacts and other items. Material culture has often been used as a proxy for people in archaeological discussions of diffusion and adoption in culture change. Our research focuses on the human skeletal remains from this area as a direct measure of migration. By comparing strontium isotope values in the bones and teeth of individual skeletons, we can directly determine whether individuals moved between different geological zones. Measurement of strontium isotopes has revealed aspects of immigration patterns in a variety of archaeological settings (Price et al. 1994; Ezzo et al. 1997; Grupe et al. 1997; Price et al. 1998; 2000).

Isotopes of strontium are conventionally expressed as the ratio of [sup.87]Sr to [sup.86]Sr and vary in nature from approximately 0.704 to 0.740. Strontium enters the human body through the food chain as nutrients pass from bedrock through soil and water to plants and animals. There is no fractionation of strontium isotopes in nature because of the large mass of the isotope (Hurst & Davis 1981). Strontium substitutes for calcium in the hydroxyapatite mineral of skeletal tissue and is stored there. Tooth enamel forms during gestation and childhood; the strontium isotope ratio in this inert tissue does not change during the life of the individual. Bone, on the other hand, remodels continuously during an individual's lifetime through reabsorption and deposition. The chemical composition of bone `turns over' with a half-life of between approximately 2 and 20 years depending on the type of bone (Parfitt 1983). Thus, individuals who move from one geological region to another can be identified by a difference in the strontium isotope ratio of their bone and tooth enamel (Price et al. 1994; Price et al. 1998).

We use human bone at each site to represent the local strontium isotope signal. The four possible outcomes of the analysis of bone and enamel from an individual are summarized in TABLE 1. Following previous studies (e.g. Price et al. 1998), we consider non-local Sr isotope signatures to be those outside 2 standard deviations from the mean [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr value of all bone samples from a cemetery. This criterion is highly conservative. Moreover, the analysis can distinguish only first generation migrants: only those individuals who were original migrants to the community, not their children, would be identified. In a community occupied for several generations, only a relatively low proportion of the individuals in a cemetery would be from the first generation. In this context, measured migration rates of 20% or more are considered high.

TABLE 1. Implications of isotope analysis of bone/tooth pair from a
single individual. Primary interpretations are in italic.

 BONES

 local signal non-local signal

 local Either (1) a lifelong Unusual: Possibly a
 signal local resident, locally born individual
TEETH (2) teeth are diagene- spent the last years of
 tically contaminated, life in a different
 or (3) the region is region and then re-
 geologically homo- turned home shortly
 geneous. before burial.
 non-local Immigration some time Either (1) a recent
 signal after the adult teeth migrant, (2) an eater
 were formed (~12 years of non-local foods or
 old). seafood, or
 (3) lifelong seasonal
 mobility over different
 geological areas
 (Burton et al. 1999).

A possible complication to this method is post-burial contamination (diagenesis) of archaeological bone by strontium in the groundwater. The problem has been addressed many authors (e.g. Pate & Brown 1985; Price et al. 1992), with the determination that diagenetic contamination can often be removed by washing bones with weak acetic acid and monitoring the Ca/P ratio in order to recover the uncontaminated portion (Price et al. 1994; Grupe et al. 1999). Tooth enamel may be relatively well preserved even if other bones are contaminated, as enamel is more resistant to diagenesis (Price 1989; Budd et al. 2000). In any case, a non-local isotopic signature is always significant because `contamination' is a local signal. Hence diagenesis does not cause us to misidentify locals as immigrants.

Geology of the Upper Rhine Valley

The local geology is an essential ingredient in understanding variation in strontium isotopes. The Upper Rhine Valley is part of a large graben some 40 km wide, extending almost 300 km from Basel, Switzerland, to Mainz, Germany (FIGURE 3). West of the graben, the Vosges Mountains are composed mainly of Palaeozoic granites and metamorphic rocks. The strontium isotopic signature of the Vosges is distinct from the Rhine drainage system. TABLE 2 shows that the granitic rocks of the Vosges have high [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr ratios averaging about 0.717 in the waters of the Vosges streams (Tricca et al. 1998). To the east, the geology of the Black Forest is similar, as it was separated from the Vosges by the formation of the graben about 25 million years ago. Comparable values are expected from the Odenwald region (north of Heidelberg) where there are these same granites. These uplands contrast with the sandstones, evaporites and carbonates of the Rhine Valley, which lie within the graben. Rhine stream- and groundwater have an average [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr of 0.708 to 0.709, while the minor rivers of the surrounding plain have values close to 0.710 (TABLE 2). Since drainages carry elements weathered from their catchment region, this is a good indicator that soils, plants, and animals and hence archaeological bone from the prehistoric residents of these granitic uplands will have different isotopic signatures from the Rhine valley.

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TABLE 2. Average strontium composition in filtered water samples as
reported in Tricca et al. 1998. The number in parentheses is the
standard deviation for the average of all the water samples in the last
digit(s).

 groundwater plain rivers

[sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr 0.70870 (7) 0.70970 (11)
Sr (ppm) 349 (81) 135 (83)

 Rhine Vosges streams

[sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr 0.70847 (9) 0.71670 (43)
Sr (ppm) 355 (59) 28 (25)

We suspect that the geochemically distinct uplands on either side of the Rhine were occupied by Mesolithic foragers. This geochemical boundary coincides with what we may envision as the forager/farmer frontier between the Rhine Valley and the surrounding uplands. Individuals from these groups who may have migrated to lowland farming settlements in the Rhine Valley should be identifiable by strontium isotope analysis.

The LBK cemeteries at Flomborn and Schwetzingen

Samples for the strontium isotope analyses reported here came from the Linearbandkeramik cemeteries of Flomborn and Schwetzingen in the Upper Rhine Valley. The two sites are located west of Heidelberg in the Rhine graben, approximately 45 km apart (FIGURE 3). The local Sr isotope signature at both cemeteries should be close to the waters of the Rhine, between 0.708 and 0.709.

Flomborn

The cemetery of Flomborn was discovered in 1900 (Koehl 1903). The ceramics belong to the Flomborn, or Middle LBK II, Phase (Richter 1969), which may have begun as early as 5300 BC and lasted for about 150 years (FIGURE 1). Radiocarbon dates on two samples of human bone from the cemetery confirm an age of c. 5200 BC.

The Flomborn cemetery contained 85 graves. The physical anthropology is reported (Gerhardt 1978) for the remains of 32 (7 not sexed or aged) individuals including 14 males (11 adults, 3 subadults) and 11 females (9 adults, 2 subadults). Adults comprise 69% of the reported burials. The average age at death for adults was 39.4 years for females and 53.5 years for males, both very high ages compared to other locations of similar date. The excavator reported the skeletons to be crouched and lying on their left side. In about half the graves, the head was facing west with the remainder facing east. Our sample set from this cemetery includes seven graves with heads toward the east and five to the west.

Schwetzingen

Discovered in 1988, Schwetzingen is a Late LBK cemetery approximately 100x50 m in size in the Rhine/Neckar region (FIGURE 3). The ceramics in the Schwetzingen graves belong primarily to Periods IV and V of Late LBK age, dating the cemetery to about 5100-5000 BC. The preservation of the skeletal material is variable depending on soil conditions within the cemetery (Behrends 1990; 1997). A total of 202 graves and 8 cremations was recorded. The reported graves contained the remains of 211 individuals. Subadults represent 36% of the population and include a significant proportion of infants. The adults include 50 males, 63 females and 22 persons of undetermined sex. The average age at death for adults is 37.4 years for women and about 40 years for men. Burial was predominantly oriented northeast-southwest, although there is some variability in grave orientation.

Results

Samples from Flomborn for strontium isotope analysis included 5 bones and 11 teeth from 11 individuals, 7 females and 4 males, ranging in age from child to mature. A total of 6 bones and 21 teeth were sampled from Schwetzingen, also from a range of ages (FIGURE 4).

[GRAPH OMITTED]

Bone samples were abraded with an inverted-cone carbide burr fitted to a high-rpm dental drill. From each tooth a wedge-shaped sample was cut using the drill fitted with a diamond disc saw. The pulp and dentine of each tooth were then removed with the same carbide burr, leaving only the intact enamel. Samples were then sonicated for 30 minutes in 5% acetic acid solution and allowed to soak in it for 8 hours. Once rinsed, the samples were then ashed at 750 [degrees] C for 8 hours and powdered. About 20 mg of powdered bone or tooth sample was dissolved in 1 ml 3.0 N [HNO.sub.3]. This solution was purified through cation exchange columns filled with 100 mg Sr exchange resin. The purified strontium solution was then dried down again and redissolved in 2 [micro]l of 2.5 M HCL, which was loaded onto single W filaments for analysis by Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS). Each isotope ratio was measured 60 to 100 times, with outlier values rejected automatically, which resulted in a precision of [+ or -] 0.00002 or even less for most samples. R.A. Bentley at Cornell University, using TIMS in the Keck Isotope Laboratory, measured bone samples. Enamel samples were analysed by P. Fullagar (UNC-Chapel Hill), using a MicroMass Sector 54. Internal precision (standard error) at UNC-CH is typically 0.000006 to 0.000010, based on 100 dynamic cycles of data collection. [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr analyses (n = 40) of NIST SRM strontium carbonate yielded a value of 0.710259 [+ or -] 0.0003 (2 SE).

The mean bone [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr value at Schwetzingen is 0.70941 [+ or -] 0.00036, while at Flomborn this value is slightly higher at 0.70995 [+ or -] 0.00019. The range for local values in each cemetery was determined using a value of [+ or -] 2 s.d. from the mean value for bone at each cemetery. Immigrants were identified as those individuals whose [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr in tooth enamel falls outside that local range, which at Flomborn is from 0.70957 to 0.71033, and at Schwetzingen is from 0.70868 to 0.71013 (FIGURE 4). These local ranges are slightly higher than the value expected for Rhine river water, but consistent with some of the values from the rivers of the plain (TABLE 2).

We identified 7 migrants among the 11 individuals (64%) from Flomborn, and 7 migrants out of 21 (33%) at Schwetzingen (FIGURE 4). All these immigrants have [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr values above the local range, with the exception of one value below the local range at Flomborn. FIGURE 4 shows that there is no obvious correlation between the sexes or ages of the skeletons at Flomborn and the [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr ratios. Of the immigrants at Schwetzingen that have been identified by sex, 4 of 7 females (57%) are migrants, compared to only 2 of 9 (22%) of the males (FIGURE 4). The female migrants at Schwetzingen are generally young -- two pre-teens, two adults -- and only one late adult. This evidence for female migration is supported by recent genetic studies in Europe (e.g. Seielstad et al. 1998).

An intriguing pattern emerges when the strontium isotope results are plotted against burial orientation (direction of the head). At Schwetzingen, all but two of the migrant burials are oriented in directions from north to east (FIGURE 4). This is also significant as a proportion -- 5 of 12 (42%) of north-to-east facing burials are migrants, while only 2 of 7 (29%) of the remaining burials are migrants. At Flomborn, 4 of the 5 sampled west-facing burials are immigrants (FIGURE 4). This difference between east- and west-facing burials is supported by preliminary lead isotope data we are currently collecting. One possible explanation for these patterns is that migrant burial orientation was related to place of origin.

Discussion and conclusions

Our results indicate that migration was important in the spread of the LBK. We observed substantial migration at the Flomborn cemetery, involving both sexes. At Schwetzingen, a somewhat lower incidence of migration was dominated by females, who often died young. Although Flomborn does not date from the earliest LBK, the high proportion of migrants (64%) suggests that many of the inhabitants moved there from some distance, perhaps from the east. This suggestion is corroborated by the appearance of spondylus-shell artefacts in the graves at Flomborn. This spondylus, from the Aegean or Adriatic to the southeast, is among the earliest in the western region of the LBK (Luning 2000; Niezery 1995). The evidence indicates that both males and females were among the migrants. The local individuals in the cemetery would represent the descendants of this original population. An alternative explanation would be that local individuals at Flomborn were already in place and were later joined by outsiders (Bentley 2001).

The results from Schwetzingen, representing the Late phase of the LBK, show a different pattern. A smaller proportion of the burials are migrants and the majority of the migrants are younger women. In this case, migration may have primarily been a result of residential changes with marriage. The strontium isotope ratio in the migrant female enamel is similar to that of the highlands on either side of the Rhine Valley. Again, at least two hypotheses have to be considered. These females may have come from hunter-gatherer communities in the uplands; intermarriage across agriculture/foraging frontier zones should be typical of such groups (Gregg 1988; Zvelebil & Rowley-Conwy 1984). If so, these immigrant brides may have been incorporated into the community and given a local identity through burial in the northeasterly orientation (Bentley 2001). A second explanation might be that these individuals came from neighbouring LBK communities at higher elevations. A third possibility would be that they originated in an unknown place.

Also at Schwetzingen we observed a relationship between burial orientation and possible place of origin. Most of the migrant individuals, as indicated by the strontium isotope signals, were buried with their heads pointing in a direction between north and east. One possible place of origin might be the Odenwald, northeast of Schwetzingen. Recently, Bradley (2001: 53-5) has argued that LBK longhouses are aligned with the doorway pointing toward southeastern Europe, asking, `Is it possible that these orientations were considered propitious because the inhabitants believed themselves to share a common origin?'. We will continue to investigate this pattern in relation to burial orientations.

We can comment on the general origins of the migrants on the basis of the regional geology. The lone immigrant from Flomborn with a lower-than-average [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr value in enamel may have come from one of several lowland places on the surrounding plain. The rest of the immigrants have high [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr values and may have spent part of their lives in the Vosges Mountains and/or the Odenwald, areas with high [sup.87]Sr/[sup.86]Sr values. Interestingly, the immigrant burials pointing east at Flomborn and those pointing northeast at Schwetzingen all point toward the Odenwald. This correlation between burial orientation and immigration is particularly significant if Mesolithic people in LBK cemeteries were buried with the opposite orientations, as has been suggested (Jeunesse 1997a).

Previous models regarding the spread of agriculture in Europe, whether favouring colonization or indigenous adoption, have considered an `either-or' scenario: either the LBK came en masse from the east or the local population adopted LBK materials and ideas. It becomes increasingly evident, however, that the process was more complex, involving small groups of immigrant farmers who came into contact with local forager-herder/horticulturalists (Gronenborn 1999). Strontium isotope study of skeletal remains adds a new dimension to the inquiry, offering new insight. In the present study, it is clear that there was substantial migration during the LBK of the Rhine Valley in the Middle phase and that it continued in a different manner in the Late phase. There seems no question that residential movement was a major aspect of life in the Linearbandkeramik.

Acknowledgements. This research was funded by the Archaeology and Archaeometry Programs at the National Science Foundation (BNS-9708001 and BNS-0073721). Their support is gratefully acknowledged. In addition we would like to thank the director of the Worms City Museum for providing permission for and access to the Flomborn samples.

(1) All dates are reported as BC, before the Christian era, based on calibrated radiocarbon dates.

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T.DOUGLAS PRICE, R. ALEXANDER BENTLEY, JENS LUNING, DETLEF GRONENBORN & JOACHIM WAHL(*)

(*) Price & Bentley, Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison WI 53706, USA. tdprice@facstaff.wisc.edu Luning & Gronenborn, Seminar fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte, Archaologie und Archaobotanik Afrikas, Robert-Mayer-Strasse 1, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany. Wahl, Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Wurttemberg, Archaologische Denkmalpflege, Osteologie, Stromeyersdorfstrasse 3, 78467 Konstanz, Germany.

Received 11 January 2001, accepted 29 March 2001, revised 7 May 2001