ABOVE: Land in the Vallerbæk Valley in Denmark that has not been farmed. This location is one mile upstream of where the researchers sampled water from a stream entering farmland.
TINE RASMUSSEN, UNIVERSITY OF TROMSØ, NORWAY
One of the most widely used tools archaeologists have at their disposal to decipher where prehistoric humans lived and traveled is the element strontium. Because strontium isotope levels in remains match the concentrations in the surrounding landscape, scientists can track migrations. While the technique itself is sound, the baseline levels of strontium in different geographies may not reliably reflect ancient times as scientists have assumed.
Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark published a report in Science Advances last week (March 13) showing that the data on strontium levels in soil and water used for these archaeological studies are not always accurate. With their new analysis, the team found that two Bronze Age human remains, Egtved ...
