Tracing mobility and landscape use in the eastern Italian Alp using oxygen, sulfur, and strontium isotope analyses on Mesolithic and Neolithic burials

In prehistoric times, the eastern Italian Alps (i.e. the Dolomites, Trentino- South Tyrol, and the Veneto Prealps) constituted a connecting region between Central Europe and the Mediterranean, which, despite its imposing nature, has been crossed by humans since the Mesolithic. The Adige and Eisack valleys, culminating in mid-altitude mountain passes such as Reschen and Brenner, provided essential north-south corridors for the circulation of people, objects, and ideas. Within the EU-funded MOLA project, bioarchaeological data derived from oxygen, sulfur, and strontium isotope analyses of cremated (only Sr) and inhumed individuals buried in the eastern Italian Alps have been integrated with advanced spatial modelling techniques. This interdisciplinary approach has allowed to unravel how social strategies influenced human mobility, landscape use, and identity formation in this mountainous region from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BC. While exotic materials, including cinnabar, rock crystal, actinolite schist, jade, shells, and steatite beads, indicate an interaction with alterity through long-distance cultural contacts with areas north of the Alps, the Po Valley, and theItalian Peninsula, isotope analyses reveal a general stationary pattern for local communities during the Neolithic. This contrasts with an increased mobility observed in later periods, highlighting evolving notions of alterity and belonging, potentially influenced by emerging socio-economic factors. Such analyses are supported by the development of a new high-resolution biologically available strontium isoscape for the eastern Italian Alps, created using a machine learning approach, and new local sulfur baselines derived from faunal remains. The results of the MOLA project will also be discussed in the light of genetic data from the same individuals (Prehistoric Alps project), offering further insights into the construction of prehistoric identities in a mountain environment.