Mobility and meaningful life histories in the European Bronze Age: case studies from the Po and Danube plains

The plains of the Danube and the Po show increasing connections at least from the Bell Beaker period all through the various phases of the Bronze Age. The intense mobility of people, artefacts, models, raw materials, technologies, ideas along this transalpine corridor linked continental Europe to the Adriatic and, by extension, to the Mediterranean. We will explore these dynamics using traditional methods and through the analysis of strontium isotope data, which allow to reconstruct the patterns of human mobility and track specific aspects of social behaviour (exogamy, fosterage practices, etc.). Beside the community level, single individuals' life histories will be presented: these "biographies" provide exceptional insights onto the Bronze Age way of living.