Publication: Strontium Isoscapes for Provenance, Mobility and Migration: The Way Forward

“Strontium Isoscapes for Provenance, Mobility, and Migration” by Maximilian Spies et. al, emerges from a Wenner-Gren supported workshop awarded to Dr. Judith Sealy. The workshop, “Strontium Isoptopes for Mobility and Migration: The Way Forward” was held in Cape Town in early 2024, with 43 participants from 11 countries. The purpose was to develop best practice in the use of strontium isotope ratios (875r/865r) to trace provenience and (palaeo) mobility, by engaging with theoretical and practical issues encountered in developing “isoscapes” of naturally-occurring variation in bioavailable 875r/865r across the landscape. Current approaches to “isoscapes” are largely based on process-level models of isotopic distribution in the framework of a geographic information system, enabling prediction of isotope ratios across space. The models then need to be verified by measurement of actual samples. Applications include studies of migration, forensic science, archaeology, pollution studies and more. Although our workshop focussed on strontium, these approaches are also applicable to other isotopes such as lead and neodymium.

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