People

Human history is fundamentally a history of movement. This part of the LOCO project explores human mobility through the study of human remains from the Low Countries, spanning from the Neolithic to the Late Middle Ages.

By applying chemical analyses, specifically oxygen and strontium isotope ratios, to human skeletal remains, we reconstruct life-course mobility. Isotopic data allow us to assess whether individuals spent their childhood in the area where they were buried or migrated there later in life, providing insights into both individual and collective patterns of movement. At the same time, skeletal remains offer information not only on biological traits, such as sex, age-at-death, and pathological conditions, but also on social dimensions of identity. Burial contexts further enrich this picture by revealing aspects of social status, cultural affiliation, and community belonging. In this way, we investigate who was on the move.

However, human mobility is also a matter of time and distance, so was movement permanent, temporary or seasonal? What social, economic, environmental, or political forces motivated different forms of mobility? Rather than viewing movement merely as a response to events, the LOCO project approaches mobility as a key driver of human development, social change, and survival.

People move not only themselves, but also materials, beliefs, and practices. By integrating evidence for people, materials, and ideas, the LOCO project aims to capture the complexity of human agency, the importance of human–object interactions, and the multiple meanings embedded in these processes of movement.