Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Strontium isotope identification of possible rural immigrants in 17th century mass graves at St. Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia

Petersone‐Gordina, Elina; Montgomery, Janet; Millard, Andrew R.; Nowell, Geoff; Peterkin, Joanne; Roberts, Charlotte A.; Gerhards, Guntis; Zelčs, Vitālijs

Strontium isotope identification of possible rural immigrants in 17th century mass graves at St. Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia Thumbnail


Authors

Elina Petersone‐Gordina

Guntis Gerhards

Vitālijs Zelčs



Abstract

The aims of this study were to explore the origins of 19 children buried in two mass graves and the general cemetery at the post-medieval St Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia, using strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr), and to establish local soil Sr biosphere ranges from faunal samples from two areas of Latvia. The results confirmed the presence of one clear outlier in the population and one child who may have had originated from the region of Vidzeme. The lack of significant differences in 87Sr/86Sr between the other individuals analysed suggested that they were representative of one population. A strong correlation between 87Sr/86Sr ratios and previously obtained mean δ13C and δ15N values in children from mass graves suggested possible short-term dietary changes with increased proportion of marine resources and food sources subject to sea spray. The study has yielded the first comparative 87Sr/86Sr data from archaeological skeletons in Latvia, which will be essential for future research addressing comparative mobility studies in the region.

Citation

Petersone‐Gordina, E., Montgomery, J., Millard, A. R., Nowell, G., Peterkin, J., Roberts, C. A., …Zelčs, V. (2022). Strontium isotope identification of possible rural immigrants in 17th century mass graves at St. Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia. Archaeometry, https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12759

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 25, 2022
Online Publication Date Feb 1, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Feb 18, 2022
Publicly Available Date Feb 23, 2022
Journal Archaeometry
Print ISSN 0003-813X
Electronic ISSN 1475-4754
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12759

Files

Published Journal Article (877 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. Archaeometry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of University of Oxford.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations