Human and animal mobility: Strontium isotope analyses
The strontium radiogenic signal varies spatially due to the proportions of 87 Sr and 86 Sr isotopes found in different geological areas. Measuring this ratio in tooth enamel can directly show how mobile
people were in the past.
Based on these analyses, we will try to reconstruct the mobility patterns and lifetime movements of the early farmers and their successors in the Southern Carpathian Basin. The direct insight into human mobility is crucial for understanding the spatial behavior and the formation and use of settlements.
We will try to answer the following questions: Did people spend their lives in one place or migrate often during their lifetimes? Is there a change in human mobility patterns over the course of the Neolithic, or did they remain constant? Were there significant inter-site differences in terms of human mobility patterns and settlement occupation?
Diet and environment: Stable isotope analyses of C, N, and S
The stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (C, N, and S) in dentine microsections can tell us a lot about a person's diet and the environments they lived in from childhood to adulthood.
Based on these analyses, we aim to reconstruct the variability of individual dietary patterns throughout life and potential migratory movements to other regions. Since different diets during childhood and adulthood can indicate migrations, the following questions will be answered:
What was the diet of the first Neolithic farmers, and did it change throughout their lifetime? From which environments were the food resources taken? What was the diet of Late Neolithic people, and did they change environments throughout their lifetime? Are there differences in dietary patterns between Early and Late Neolithic communities?
Residential mobility in the Neolithic: the settlement archaeology approach
Addressing the questions of spatial organization, settlement layout, and duration will be gained through the reconstruction of different architectural features and their spatial and temporal relationships within the sites.
The data obtained will help reconstruct residential mobility by answering the following questions: What was the average size of individual settlements in the Neolithic? What was their internal organization? How long did individual settlements last, and were they inhabited continuously or periodically? Is there a trend of change over time? Are there organizational differences between individual settlements during the same period?
Reconstruction of Neolithic economic practices
Animal management practices, as an important indicator of economic strategies but also an indicator of different patterns of settlement use, will be addressed through comprehensive archaeozoological analysis and by answering these questions:
What is the ratio of wild and domestic animals at individual sites? Was the settling of a specific area conditioned by the seasonal availability of certain species of wild animals? What is the ratio of economically important species of domestic animals in settlements? Is there a preference for domestic species that are more adapted to frequent movements but also more economically “profitable” due to the use of their secondary products (e.g., cattle, sheep, and goats, compared to pigs)? Does the animals’ age structure indicate the use of the settlement throughout the year or specific seasons?
Project dissemination and communication
During the MOVE, we will promote, popularize, and familiarize all interested parties with the importance and significance of the project results. Raising awareness, education, and informing the target public will be pursued from the earliest stage of the project. Project results obtained through different work packages will be consolidated and presented to the public.
Regarding the scientific community, raising awareness and distributing our results will be done through the MOVE website and oral and poster presentations at national and international scientific conferences, publications, and peer-reviewed journals. Very important to MOVE is also dissemination to students, which will be accomplished through workshops and public lectures. The wider audience will be continuously informed about the importance and achievements gained during the project through social networks and scientific manifestations, as well as public lectures and exhibitions.
