J Montgomery
Biographic Data
| ID | 11062 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Montgomery |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Montgomery |
| SIGNATURE | MONTGOMERY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6729-3088 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 90 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 894 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 90 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1908 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Comparing childhood and adulthood diets in a Viking Age population from the Lejasbitēni cemetery, Latvia
This study examines childhood and adulthood diets in selected individuals from the Iron Age LejasbitÄ ni cemetery population in Latvia (7thâ 10th centuries CE). Bone samples for isotope analysis were collected from 12 adult individuals; six had previously available isotope data from M1 root dentine. Bone samples from two non-adult individuals of the chronologically later Liv culture were included for preliminary comparison. Results showed that th…
Strontium isotopes and concentrations in bioarchaeology – connecting diet and mobility
Strontium isotopes and concentrations have played a crucial role in bioarchaeological research for several decades, offering valuable insights into past human and animal mobility, dietary patterns, and landscape use. These geochemical markers have significantly enhanced our understanding of animal-human-environment interactions and are now considered an essential tool in archaeological science. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the cu…
Abila of the Decapolis in Northern Jordan During the Early Byzantine Period
The beginning of the Byzantine period at Abila of Decapolis in northern Jordan was marked by a significant increase in population compared to the preceding Roman period. This increase was examined through the lens of inward migration, which was subsequently investigated via the utilization of strontium isotope analysis on 15 dental enamel samples collected from 15 individuals recovered from three Early Byzantine tombs at Abila. The results show t…
Répercussions de la Peste noire sur l'alimentation à la fin du Moyen Âge
International audience
Understanding Sense of Place
Sense of place relates to the identity of a place or unique characteristics that create meanings for the people who experience it.This situation has the potential to initiate and enhance a person's attachment to a place and can be strengthened by the functioning of the human senses which can see, hear, smell, and feel everything that happens around them.In this context, this study explores sense of place in a vernacular place: Pasar Baru Bandung …
Neolithisation through bone
Despite an increasing number of studies, the application of stable sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis to prehistoric bone collagen remains in its infancy. Conventionally, stable sulfur isotope compositions reflect coastal proximity and the interaction between humans and animals. Here, we undertook stable carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis of human and faunal bone collagen. To understand the local environmental condition…
Gladiators at Roman Colchester
The locally made colour-coated ware vessel known as the Colchester Vase is argued to be a commissioned piece recording a performance in the town. The inscription on the vessel, cut pre-firing, names individual arena performers depicted en barbotine . One name, Memnon, is argued to be a ‘stage name’ taken from a protagonist in the Trojan war. The connection of another combatant, Valentinus, to the 30th legion is re-considered as evidence for gladi…
Evidence for punishment and execution on the foreshore
Combining dental calculus with isotope analysis in the Alps
Kinship practices in Early Iron Age South-east Europe
The burial of multiple individuals within a single funerary monument invites speculation about the relationships between the deceased: were they chosen on the basis of status, gender or relatedness, for example? Here, the authors present the results of aDNA and isotope analyses conducted on seven individuals from an Early Iron Age barrow at Dolge njive, south-eastern Slovenia. All seven individuals are close biological relatives. While the group …
Youth Mobility, Migration, and Health Before and After the Black Death
Migration is driven by the young but despite this, few isotope studies focus on adolescent migrants or the intricatenature of their movement. Using a multi-analytical approach, the authors explore this mobility and the impact of urban living on the diet and health of adolescents from the pre-and post-Black Death periods of Northern England. Isotope analysis (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium) and lead concentrations were measured in 63 adol…
Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic
In the summer of 1986 a mass grave was discovered along the bank of the river Tryggevælde Å where it empties into Køge Bugt, the bay south of modern Copenhagen, Denmark. The human remains, dating to the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture, consisted of eight individuals of multiple ages, ranging c. 35–45 years old to newborn children. Four were arranged on one side of the grave, with four on the other, placed head to foot. How they were related and…
The All Saints Anchoress? An Osteobiography
BURIAL SK 3870 WAS EXCAVATED AT ALL SAINTS CHURCH, FISHERGATE, YORK, IN 2007. This unusual, tightly crouched burial was found in a large grave in the church apse. Preliminary research at the time of excavation suggested that this skeleton may represent the remains of Lady Isabel German, a prominent anchoress who resided at All Saints in the 15th century. The current study combines evidence from detailed osteological analysis with radiocarbon dati…
Strontium isotope identification of possible rural immigrants in 17th century mass graves at St. Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia
The aims of this study were to explore the origins of 19 children buried in two mass graves and the general cemetery at the post‐medieval St Gertrude Church cemetery in Riga, Latvia, using strontium isotope analysis ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), and to establish local soil Sr biosphere ranges from faunal samples from two areas of Latvia. The results confirmed the presence of one clear outlier in the population and one child who may have had originated from th…
Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis
OBJECTIVES: This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 43 teeth from 29 nonadult individuals aged from 40 gestational weeks to 19 years old were analyzed. The sample included pairs of fully mineralized and j…
Illness and inclusion
Leprosy is one of the most notorious diseases in history, widely associated with social stigma and exclusion. This study builds on previous work to reevaluate the medicohistorical evidence for social stigma in relation to leprosy. This is achieved by isotopic and palaeopathological analyses of adolescent skeletons (10-25 years old) from the Anglo-Scandinavian (10th-11th centuries AD) parish cemetery of St. John at the Castle Gate in Norwich (East…
Death metal
The use of lead was ubiquitous throughout the Roman Empire, including material for water pipes, eating vessels, medicine, and even as a sweetener for wine. The toxicity of lead is well established today, resulting in long-term psychological and neurological deficits as well as metabolic diseases. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of lead, and it is likely that the widespread use of this deadly metal among Roman populations led …
Romans, barbarians and foederati
Investigating the dietary life histories and mobility of children buried in St Gertrude Church cemetery, Riga, Latvia, 15th–17th centuries ad
Carbon and nitrogen isotope profiles were obtained from incremental dentine analysis of 19 non‐adults from a cemetery in Riga, Latvia. The research compared the life histories and diet between people buried in two mass graves and the general cemetery. The δ 13 C profiles of several children from the mass graves were similar but did not resemble the patterns seen in children from the general cemetery, suggesting that they probably represented a di…
At the world's edge
Objectives A multi‐isotope study was conducted on individuals buried at Skriðuklaustur monastery (AD 1493–1554) to investigate their geographic origins and dietary composition. Comparative material from individuals excavated from Skeljastaðir, an inland farm site was also analyzed. Materials and methods Bone collagen was extracted from 50 humans (Skriðuklaustur and Skeljastaðir) and 25 animals (Skriðuklaustur) and analyzed for δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and…
Isotopic Evidence for Human Movement into Central England during the Early Neolithic
Isotope ratios of tooth enamel from ten Early Neolithic individuals buried in a long cairn at Whitwell in central England were measured to determine where they sourced their childhood diet. Five individuals have low Sr concentrations (11–66 ppm) and high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.7164–0.7212). Three individuals have relatively low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.712–0.711) and Sr concentrations ranging between 54 and 109 ppm. Two individuals have strontium i…
The origins of decorated ostrich eggs in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East
Isotopic analysis of the Blick Mead dog
A multi-isotope (C, N, O, Sr, Pb) study of Iron Age and Roman period skeletons from east Edinburgh, Scotland exploring the relationship between decapitation burials and geographical origins
Recent excavations at Musselburgh, East Lothian (Scotland) revealed twelve skeletons, radiocarbon dated to the Iron Age and Roman period. The high incidence of skeletal trauma characteristic of decapitation in those of Roman date makes this site unusual. A multi-isotope investigation of seven of these individuals was conducted to explore any link between intrusive burial practices and migration at one of Britain’s most northerly frontiers. Bulk c…
Keeping Up with the Kids
Leprosy is one of the few specific infectious diseases that can be studied in bioarchaeology due to its characteristic debilitating and disfiguring skeletal changes. Leprosy has been, and continues to be, one of the most socially stigmatising diseases in history, over-riding all other aspects of social identity for the sufferers and frequently resulting in social exclusion. This study examines the stable isotopic evidence of mobility patterns of …
Childhood Diet
Incremental dentine analysis utilizes tissue that does not remodel and that permits comparison, at the same age, of those who survived infancy with those who did not at high temporal resolution. Here, we present a pilot study of teeth from a 19th‐century cemetery in London, comparing the merits of two methods of obtaining dentine increments for subsequent isotope determination. Covariation in δ 13 C and δ 15 N values suggests that even small vari…
Infant mortality and isotopic complexity
OBJECTIVES: Studies of the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ(13) C and δ(15) N) of modern tissues with a fast turnover, such as hair and fingernails, have established the relationship between these values in mothers and their infants during breastfeeding and weaning. Using collagen from high-resolution dentine sections of teeth, which form in the perinatal period we investigate the relationship between diet and physiology in this pivot…
Reconstructing the Lifetime Movements of Ancient People
A new procedure is described in which combined lead and strontium isotope analysis of archaeological human dental tissues can be used to comment on the lifetime movements of individuals. A case study is presented of four Neolithic burials – an adult female and three juveniles – from a shared burial pit excavated at Monkton-up-Wimbourne, Dorset. It is demonstrated that the adult's place of origin was at least 80km to the north-west in the area of …
Continuity or colonization in Anglo‐Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton
The adventus Saxonum is a crucial event in English protohistory. Scholars from a range of disciplines dispute the scale and demographic profile of the purported colonizing population. The 5th–7th century burial ground at West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, is one of the few Anglian cemeteries where an associated settlement site has been identified and subjected to extensive multidisciplinary postexcavation study. Skeletal and grave good evidence has…
Victims and survivors
Historical evidence documents mass migration from Ireland to London during the period of the Great Irish Famine of 1845–52. The rural Irish were reliant on a restricted diet based on potatoes but maize, a C 4 plant, was imported from the United States of America in 1846–47 to mitigate against Famine. In London, Irish migrants joined a population with a more varied diet. To investigate and characterize their diet, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio…
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
A calf for all seasons? The potential of stable isotope analysis to investigate prehistoric husbandry practices
Comparing apples and oranges
Objectives Recent developments in incremental dentine analysis allowing increased temporal resolution for tissues formed during the first 1,000 days of life have cast doubt on the veracity of weaning studies using bone collagen carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) isotope ratio data from infants. Here, we compare published bone data from the well‐preserved Anglo‐Saxon site of Raunds Furnells, England, with co‐forming dentine from the same indivi…
Evidence for long-term averaging of strontium in bovine enamel using Tims and LA-MC-ICP-MS strontium isotope intra-molar profiles
High spatial resolution micro-sampling of tooth enamel offers the possibility of high temporal resolution isotope data to reconstruct climate, environment, diet and mobility. Questions remain about the duration and pattern of the maturation phase of enamel and the existence and direction of chronological 'time-lines'. LA-MC-ICP-MS measurements of c. 400 μm craters and TIMS analyses of transverse enamel sections of an archaeological bovine third m…
Isotopes and individuals
Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery
Mobility or migration
Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic
Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. An…
Impious Easterners
Considerable debate persists concerning the origins of those involved in the adventus Saxonum : the arrival of Germanic peoples in Britain during the fifth century AD. This question was investigated using oxygen and strontium isotope ratios obtained from archaeological dental samples from individuals in the ‘Migration Period’ cemetery, Ringlemere, Kent ( n = 7) and three continental European sites ( n = 17). Results demonstrated that strontium al…
Identifying migrants in Roman London using lead and strontium stable isotopes
An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough
Evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain
Ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practising mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC). But now a remarkable series of finds from a remote Scottish island indicates that Ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue…
New light on the personal identification of a skeleton of a member of Sir John Franklin’s last expedition to the Arctic, 1845
To the Land or to the Sea”
This study investigated palaeodiet and population mobility in early medieval Frisia through the stable isotope analysis of individuals buried in the fifth–eighth century AD cemetery of Oosterbeintum, a terp site on the northern coast of the Netherlands. The results cast new light on the role of the northern Netherlands in trade and migration in the early medieval period, and have significance for the study of interaction and movement throughout t…
Beaker people in Britain
Mobility, mortality, and the middle ages
Mobility and migration patterns of groups and individuals have long been a topic of interest to archaeologists, used for broad explanatory models of cultural change as well as illustrations of historical particularism. The 14th century AD was a tumultuous period of history in Britain, with severely erratic weather patterns, the Great Famine of 1315–1322, the Scottish Wars of Independence, and the Hundred Years' War providing additional migration …
Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis
OBJECTIVES: This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 43 teeth from 29 nonadult individuals aged from 40 gestational weeks to 19 years old were analyzed. The sample included pairs of fully mineralized and j…
British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture
Iron Age chariot burials in the UK are rare and restricted in their distribution. Historically it has been suggested that their Arras culture affinities with Continental Europe, particularly with the Paris basin in France, may be indicative of migration. The majority of them are found on chalk and the putative source region is also chalk. This has meant that a study using only strontium isotopes to identify mobile individuals is problematic. Here…
Land use and mobility during the Neolithic in Wales explored using isotope analysis of tooth enamel
Objectives The nature of land use and mobility during the transition to agriculture has often been debated. Here, we use isotope analysis of tooth enamel from human populations buried in two different Neolithic burial monuments, Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf, in south‐east Wales, to examine patterns of land use and to evaluate where individuals obtained their childhood diet. Materials and Methods We employ strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) and oxygen (δ 18 O) a…
Strontium isotope evidence of early Funnel Beaker Culture movement of cattle
The movement of livestock across and within landscapes is increasingly being recognized as common in northern European prehistoric contexts, and was performed for various purposes. However, almost nothing is known about the movement of livestock in the earliest phase of the southern Scandinavian Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture (ENI, TRB, 4000–3500 cal BC), or even if such movement is indicated. In this study, domestic cattle (Bos taurus) teeth fr…
Isotopic Evidence for Human Movement into Central England during the Early Neolithic
Isotope ratios of tooth enamel from ten Early Neolithic individuals buried in a long cairn at Whitwell in central England were measured to determine where they sourced their childhood diet. Five individuals have low Sr concentrations (11–66 ppm) and high 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.7164–0.7212). Three individuals have relatively low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (0.712–0.711) and Sr concentrations ranging between 54 and 109 ppm. Two individuals have strontium i…
Extra Supplement
God, Who at Sundry Times. Anthem for Christmas
The Mathematical Problem of the Price Index
Differential diagenesis of strontium in archaeological human dental tissues
Reconstructing the Lifetime Movements of Ancient People
A new procedure is described in which combined lead and strontium isotope analysis of archaeological human dental tissues can be used to comment on the lifetime movements of individuals. A case study is presented of four Neolithic burials – an adult female and three juveniles – from a shared burial pit excavated at Monkton-up-Wimbourne, Dorset. It is demonstrated that the adult's place of origin was at least 80km to the north-west in the area of …
An assessment of solubility profiling as a decontamination procedure for the 87Sr/86Sr analysis of archaeological human skeletal tissue
Program and Conference Schedule
Continuity or colonization in Anglo‐Saxon England? Isotope evidence for mobility, subsistence practice, and status at West Heslerton
The adventus Saxonum is a crucial event in English protohistory. Scholars from a range of disciplines dispute the scale and demographic profile of the purported colonizing population. The 5th–7th century burial ground at West Heslerton, North Yorkshire, is one of the few Anglian cemeteries where an associated settlement site has been identified and subjected to extensive multidisciplinary postexcavation study. Skeletal and grave good evidence has…
Evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain
Ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practising mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC). But now a remarkable series of finds from a remote Scottish island indicates that Ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue…
Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling
A carbon-rich black layer, dating to ≈12.9 ka, has been previously identified at ≈50 Clovis-age sites across North America and appears contemporaneous with the abrupt onset of Younger Dryas (YD) cooling. The in situ bones of extinct Pleistocene megafauna, along with Clovis tool assemblages, occur below this black layer but not within or above it. Causes for the extinctions, YD cooling, and termination of Clovis culture have long been controversia…
Resolving archaeological populations with Sr-isotope mixing models
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Isotope domain mapping of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr biosphere variation on the Isle of Skye, Scotland
The potential of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope composition for tracking and determining the origin of material, whether it is humans, animals, water or wine can be fully realized only if high-quality reference datasets are available against which to compare the unknowns. This is currently not the case. Despite the rapid increase in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr-based provenance studies of biosphere materials there are no well-documented maps available. Most researchers re…
Mobility or migration
An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough
The Potential of Carbonized Grain to Preserve Biogenic 87 Sr/ 86 Sr Signatures Within the Burial Environment
Carbonized grains survive for millennia in many archaeological contexts. Their stable structure raises the possibility that they preserve biogenic strontium isotope signatures. This hypothesis was investigated using short‐term, laboratory experiments with modern grain immersed in Chalk solution. HCl leaching removed > 95% of secondary alteration from charred grain, and isotope ratios close to the starting value were recovered. This could not be a…
Isotopes and individuals
Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery
Spatial variations in biosphere 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in Britain
Strontium isotopes are a powerful tool for investigating the geographical origins of people and animals but assignment of provenance requires reference maps and databases. This paper presents a map of strontium isotope variations across Britain for use in archaeological and other studies, and is produced by direct measurement of strontium isotope compositions of biosphere components, predominantly plants. The map characterizes the biosphere signa…
Passports from the past
Strontium isotopes are a powerful tool which provide information about provenance directly from the tissues of humans rather than the grave context and burial goods. Geographical variation in strontium isotopes is primarily controlled by the underlying geology but there are many other factors that need to be considered before migratory individuals can be identified. Consequently, despite many studies which have shown that the method works well, i…
Evidence for long-term averaging of strontium in bovine enamel using Tims and LA-MC-ICP-MS strontium isotope intra-molar profiles
High spatial resolution micro-sampling of tooth enamel offers the possibility of high temporal resolution isotope data to reconstruct climate, environment, diet and mobility. Questions remain about the duration and pattern of the maturation phase of enamel and the existence and direction of chronological 'time-lines'. LA-MC-ICP-MS measurements of c. 400 μm craters and TIMS analyses of transverse enamel sections of an archaeological bovine third m…
Excavations at Upper Largie Quarry, Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Excavations were carried out intermittently between 1982 and 2005, by various excavators, in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll & Bute. They revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric activity, dating from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, on a fluvioglacial terrace overlooking the rest of the Glen, although some evidence was doubtless destroyed without record during a period of unmonitored quarrying. Seve…
The Identity of the St Bees Lady, Cumbria
Using an Osteobiographical approach, this contribution considers the identity of the woman found alongside the St Bees Man, one of the best-preserved archaeological bodies ever discovered. Osteological, isotopic and radiocarbon analyses, combined with the archaeological context of the burial and documented social history, provide the basis for the identification of a late 14th-century heiress whose activities were at the heart of medieval norther…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
A calf for all seasons? The potential of stable isotope analysis to investigate prehistoric husbandry practices
New light on the personal identification of a skeleton of a member of Sir John Franklin’s last expedition to the Arctic, 1845
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (70 works) · Archaeology (58 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (55 works) · Geography (51 works) · Biology (39 works) · History (32 works) · Isotopes of strontium (29 works) · Chemistry (28 works) · Isotope analysis (28 works) · Strontium (28 works)