Christophe Snoeck: From Stonehenge to Novo mesto. The use of Strontium isotopes for a better understanding of prehistoric communities
Event date:
Event location: Chamber Hall, Rectorate UL Kongresni trg 12
We invite you to a lecture by Prof. Dr. Christoph Snoeck (VUB), which is part of the Year of Heritage programme of the Faculty of Arts, organised by the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. The lecture will present the current state of the art and the main advances in strontium isotope analyses on human skeletal remains, as well as examples of the most interesting research from different parts of the world, from Stonehenge to the New Town. The lecture will be in English.
Strontium isotope analyses have changed our view of past mobility and landscape use, allowing us to trace the origins of food and drink of past inhabitants. For example, analysis of cremated remains of the deceased discovered at Stonehenge has shown that many of them did not live near the site before they died. On the contrary, some are even thought to have originated in Wales, from where some of the stones used to build the monument were transported. Similar research is currently being carried out throughout Slovenia, including at the Bronze Age and Iron Age sites of Kapiteljska njiva and Mestne njive in Novo mesto.
The lecture, in addition to the FF Heritage Year programme, is part of the activities of the MATRES project (Material Resilience in Times of Environmental and Social Change) and is supported by EUTOPIA - European University Alliance and the Slovenian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science E-RIHS.si.
Christophe Snoeck is a Research Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the head of the Brussels Bioarchaeology Lab (BB-LAB). In his research, he combines multi-disciplinary expertise in archaeology and isotope geochemistry to answer key archaeological questions. He is currently concluding project ERC LUMIERE that aims to develop new proxies for the study of charred and calcined bone to answer questions of mobility and landscape use at the European Level.
