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Leprosy can lead to blood depletion in Zn, Ca, Mg, and Fe and blood enrichment in Cu. In late medieval Europe, minerals were used to treat leprosy. Here, physiological responses to leprosy and possible evidence of treatment are investigated in enamel, dentine, and cementum of leprosy sufferers from medieval Denmark (n = 12) and early 20th century Romania (n = 2). Using SXRF and LA-ICP-TOFMS, 12 elements were mapped in 15 tooth thin sections, and the statistical covariation of paired elements was computed to assess their biological relevance. The results show marked covariations in the Zn, Ca, and Mg distributions, which are compatible with clinical studies but cannot be directly attributed to leprosy. Minerals used historically as a treatment for leprosy show no detectable intake (As, Hg) or a diffuse distribution (Pb) related to daily ingestion. Intense Pb enrichments indicate acute incorporations of Pb, potentially through the administration of Pb-enriched medication or the mobilization of Pb from bone stores to the bloodstream during intense physiological stress related to leprosy. However, comparisons with a healthy control group are needed to ascertain these interpretations. The positive correlations and the patterns observed between Pb and essential elements may indicate underlying pathophysiological conditions, demonstrating the potential of SXRF and LA-ICP-TOFMS for paleopathological investigations.

We present results of the largest multidisciplinary human mobility investigation to date of skeletal remains from present-day Denmark encompassing the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Through a multi-analytical approach based on 88 individuals from 37 different archaeological localities in which we combine strontium isotope and radiocarbon analyses together with anthropological investigations, we explore whether there are significant changes in human mobility patterns during this period. Overall, our data suggest that mobility of people seems to have been continuous throughout the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. However, our data also indicate a clear shift in mobility patterns from around 1600 BC onwards, with a larger variation in the geographical origin of the migrants, and potentially including more distant regions. This shift occurred during a transition period at the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age at a time when society flourished, expanded and experienced an unprecedented economic growth, suggesting that these aspects were closely related.

Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old "Skrydstrup Woman" from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections; consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical, biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17-18 years old when she died, and that she moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14 years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way movement of an elite female during the possible "age of marriageability" might suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction in prehistory.