Der BAG-Förderpreis 2020 für Masterarbeiten wurde heute an Sophie G. Habinger BA MSc, Universität Tübingen,  Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, verliehen. Der Vorstand der BAG gratuliert aufs Herzlichste!

Titel der Abschlussarbeit
Camels in the Roman Empire — A new approach to life history and mobility of camels using stable carbon and oxygen isotopes

Abstract
Although camels are not indigenous to Europe they were found at several sites from Roman provinces starting with the beginning of the 1^st century AD. It must have been beneficial to bring them there. Based on finds of remains of juvenile individuals (e. g. from Tanasi) it was also suggested that the Romans might have systematically bred camels within Europe. For this study I took serial samples of the enamel of four camels from Central European sites (Innsbruck-Wilten, Mamer-Bertrange, Tongeren, and Trier) dating to the 2^nd – 4^th century AD. I measured the relative isotopic abundances of carbon and oxygen isotopes of the carbonate fraction of the tooth enamel. The δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C values reflect the climate and habitat in which an individual lived during the time of tooth mineralization. I used this data to pinpoint the places of origin of the camels and to reconstruct their life history and migratory behaviour. Furthermore, the data can function as an additional proxy for species determination due to the different habitats of Camelus bactrianus and Camelus dromedarius. I proposed a new workflow for data analysis that combines cluster analysis and statistical comparison of the distributions of the δ-values. It yielded interesting insights on the similarities in migratory behaviour of the camels from Mamer-Bertrange and Trier.