A significant amount of Bronze Age skeletal material has been subject to stable isotope analyses; this is largely due to large-scale projects such as the Leverhulme-funded ‘Beaker and Bodies Project’. The Beakers and Bodies project, for example, included material from all across Scotland for both dietary (carbon and nitrogen) and mobility (strontium and oxygen) isotopes. Both bone collagen and tooth enamel respectively were analysed (Pearson et al 2019). Despite the large-scale nature of this study, few samples from Perth and Kinross were included. An exception was a skeleton of a young male (17–25 years) from the site of Gairneybank (cist 3). Dating to the Early Bronze Age, this individual demonstrated a very low strontium isotope ratio – compared to values expected for individuals living in Scotland, combined with a relatively low oxygen isotope signature. These data led the researchers to conclude that this individual may have originated from a region of basaltic rocks and a typically mild climate, such as the area around County Antrim in Northern Ireland. The inclusion and discussion of these data on Canmore, alongside other details of the archaeology of the site – as well as in the overall project publications – is a demonstration of good practice, making the data and a short synthesis accessible for all. This highlights the power of isotope approaches in revealing individual life stories even where only a single skeleton is studied from a site, as well as the mobile nature of individuals and populations in the early part of the Bronze Age (Pellegrini et al 2016). Recently, a single burial has been analysed, through a collaboration between the University of Aberdeen and Perth Museum, from the Late Bronze Age Perth and Kinross site of Lochlands Farm, Rattray for carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope ratios. The skeletal remains of an adult female with a perimortem injury to the lower jaw were uncovered from a cist facing W–S (Aitken, MacLaren and Scott 1962). These data, shown below in Table 2, demonstrate this individual’s diet consisted of terrestrially-derived protein and a distinct lack of marine fish protein.
| Sample ID | δ¹³C | δ ¹⁵N | δ ³⁴S | %C | %N | %S | C:N | C:S | N:S |
| LF-1 | -21.4 | 10.1 | 15.1 | 41.5 | 14.6 | 0.2 | 3.3 | 519 | 157 |
These results are in keeping with diet in Scotland during all parts of the Bronze Age, earlier and later prehistory. Further analyses of this individual, for example, incremental analysis of their dentinal collagen for the reconstruction of dietary change during life or the analysis of their tooth enamel for strontium and oxygen isotopes to infer their childhood origin, would enhance our understanding of this individual’s life history. The latter could be particularly informative given the isotopic evidence for a high level of immigration and personal mobility in Scotland and throughout the UK as a whole during the Bronze Age (Pellegrini et al 2016).
As highlighted in the above, the main research questions pertaining to isotopes in this period focus on the further characterisation of interpersonal mobility, both on a population and individual level, but also explorations of possible interpersonal and/or regional dietary variations and/or differences in the management of domestic animals. As with other periods, the analysis of childhood diet and of early-forming tissues to infer breastfeeding and weaning practices could also be illuminating in the Bronze Age as very little is known about these practices in prehistory. However, as with other, earlier, periods, further isotope studies in Perth and Kinross are restricted by the need for more detailed auditing and cataloguing of skeletal collections – both human and faunal – and by the difficulty of dating prehistoric inhumations in north-eastern Scotland without radiometric dating.
Research Priorities
The cataloguing of collections of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age human and animal material exist within Perth and Kinross or may be held in other national institutions, and originate from the region.
The radiocarbon dating of isolated unclassified prehistoric human burials in order to identify further material. This should be conducted as part of commercial work, local museum or heritage initiatives, or research projects. The dating of existing museum collections, as well as new finds, should be considered a priority.
Given that stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data can be generated alongside radiocarbon dates in some institutions (eg at SUERC), such an approach should be undertaken to maximise initial destructive sampling of any skeletons.