This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Young adults, not families, drove migration in Bronze Age communities. Using skeletal samples from archaeological sites in Greece, researchers mapped mobility during the region's Middle and Late Bronze Age.
The study suggests that young people sought out new communities. The findings challenge traditional assumptions about mobility and migration in prehistoric societies. Previous research has often suggested that women were more likely to move between communities, particularly through marriage in patrilineal societies.
"Our study demonstrates that the numbers of nonlocal women and men are comparable, suggesting that several different factors might have been driving an individual's mobility," says Serena Sabatini of the University of Gothenburg. The Mediterranean region saw significant sociocultural and economic transformations during the Bronze Age, varying across regions and over time. Expanding exchange networks played an important role in these developments.
To what extent those exchanges were accompanied by the migration and settlement of foreign individuals within local communities remains poorly understood. The study, "Exploring Mobility in Bronze Age Greece: A Sr Isotope Perspective," is published in PLOS One. The researchers determined the childhood origins of 199 Bronze Age individuals from southern and central Greece.
The study shows that a consistent 5% to 10% of the individuals analyzed in each of the Bronze Age communities studied in modern-day Greece were "foreigners." "Interestingly, nonlocal individuals were identified across different burial practices, featuring both unremarkable and richly furnished graves, revealing that individuals were mobile regardless of their wealth or status," Sabatini says. While no "foreigners" were identified among the children studied, young adults under age 30 were most likely to be nonlocal, suggesting that mobility and migration largely involved single young individuals rather than the relocation of entire families. Frank et al, Exploring mobility in Bronze Age Greece: A Sr isotope perspective, PLOS One (2026).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0357576 Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile → Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing.
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