Descriptions

An example of an animal bone sampled for stable isotope analysis. One of the teeth, a molar, has had a small sample removed from it. For the EAPIT (Exeter a Place in Time) project this sample was analysed at Reading University for the strontium isotope ratio in the tooth’s enamel. This analysis gave the tooth a sort of ‘isotopic signature’. The strontium isotope levels in the tooth have come from the ground water and vegetation that the animal consumed during its life and so the isotopic signature of the tooth will tell us where the animal was living. In this case it suggests that the animal moved between the uplands of Dartmoor and the Exe Valley, suggesting that the movement of stock animals between summer and winter pastures (well recorded in history) can be pushed back to the Roman period.



This object is on display at RAMM in Gallery 21.