2026-06-29T22:47:26Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/114682026-03-05T12:22:31Zcom_10259.4_2539com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259.4_2540

González-Rabanal, Borja Vidal Cordasco, Marco Adolfo Jones, Jennifer R. Agudo Pérez, Lucía Carmona Ballestero, Eduardo López, Belén Martín Merino, Miguel Ángel Ortega Martínez, Ana Isabel Straus, Lawrence G. Stevens, Rhiannon E. Vega Maeso, Cristina González Morales, Manuel R. Marín-Arroyo, Ana B. 2026-03-02T17:20:55Z 2026-03-02T17:20:55Z 2025-08 1932-6203 https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11468 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0330249 1932-6203 Population movements constitute a significant driver of cultural change in prehistoric societies. In recent years, sulfur isotopes have emerged as a valuable approach for distinguishing human/animal provenance. However, the scarcity of sulfur isotope studies and the lack of baseline maps predicting their variations in the landscape limit our current knowledge about mobility behaviours. Here, we first present the δ34S isotope values of 142 human and animal bone collagen samples from coastal and inland funerary sites located in northern Iberia. Second, to apply a multivariate machine-learning regression and a random forest model to predict sulfur isotope variations across Iberia, we compiled the sulfur isotope data from 554 specimens of 41 archaeological locations from Holocene contexts. Our research demonstrated that population movement between coastal and inland locations is observable through differences in the δ34S isotope values of individuals linked to their respective environments, suggesting migrations on both sides of the Cantabrian mountain range. The resulting isoscape model demonstrates that sulfur isotope patterns are highly predictable, with 82% of the sulfur isotope variation explained by only four variables: elevation, Bouguer anomaly, distance from the coast, and strontium isotope values. While the model is highly accurate for regions with large amounts of data, such as northern Iberia, Central and Eastern Iberia still require more sulfur isotope data to predict isoscapes. B.G-R. benefited from a Juan de la Cierva Grant (JDC2022-048798-I), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union «NextGeneration EU»/PRTR. This isotopic research was mainly funded by the research projects of the Spanish Economy, Industry and Competitiveness Ministry HAR2016-75605-R to M.R.G.M. and HAR2017- 84997-P to A.B.M-A. Part of this research was also funded by the ERC Consolidator Grant (SUBSILIENCE ref. 818299), awarded to A.B.M-A., the Santander Bank Programme Talent Attraction for Research - STAR1 to A.B.M-A and the regional projects of the DG Cultural Heritage of the Regional Government of Castilla y León (44-IyD/BU-2020, 35-IyD/BU-2021, 78-IyD/BU-2022), and the Provincial Council of Burgos/municipalities of Montorio and Merindad de Sotoscueva (BOPBUR-2021-04752, BOPBUR-2023-04218) awarded to A.I.O. application/pdf eng Public Library of Science PLOS One. 2025, V. 20, n. 8, e0330249 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0330249 Atribución 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Prehistoria Emigración e inmigración Prehistoric peoples Emigration and immigration Sulfur as a proxy for identifying coast-inland human mobility in Northern Iberia during Late Prehistory info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion PLOS One 20 8 e0330249