Antiquity 78 (299)

Results of an analysis to establish whether the material from which the Drums were made is chalk or Magnesian limestone.

The study of the proportions of stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen which survive in ancient human and animal bones offers highly suggestive indications of ancient diets. Among the most remarkable results from such investigations is the dramatic change in diet which is thought to have occurred between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic when people turned from maritime to terrestrial food, from fish to meat and vegetables. The article consists of three contributions which are said to challenge, modify, enhance or reflect on this model

the authors show that, in southern Sweden, the preferences for fish over meat were related less to period or culture, but to location: fish-eaters live by the sea

Stable isotopes present in local ground water get into people's teeth before they are twelve years old, and act as a signature to the area where they grew up (and drank the water). In a review of recent work in Britain the authors show the huge potential of this method for detecting population movement -- and thus ultimately for investigating questions of migration, exogamy and slavery.