Medieval Space and Population
Berlin originated from the twin medieval settlements of Berlin and Cölln, founded along the River Spree in the late 12th century. Archaeological excavations at St. Peter’s Square, the oldest known cemetery of these settlements, uncovered more than 3,700 burials dating back to the city's earliest history.
As part of the international research project Medieval Space and Population, we investigated human mobility during the formative years of Berlin. By analysing strontium (Sr) and oxygen (O) isotopes preserved in tooth enamel from some of the oldest individuals buried at St. Peter’s Square (Figrue 1), as well as from contemporary domestic animals, we identified migrants among the earliest inhabitants of Berlin and reconstructed their likely regions of origin, providing new insights into population dynamics during the city's foundation period (Figure 2).
To determine where these migrants may have originated, we collected river water and groundwater samples from the wider Berlin hinterland and developed a strontium isoscape map for a large part of northeastern Central Europe, extending from the Eger Rift to the Baltic Sea and from western Poland to northwestern Germany. Combining these data with the isotope signatures preserved in teeth allowed us to reconstruct patterns of migration and reveal the diverse origins of the people who inhabited medieval Berlin (Figure 3).
Figure 1: Tooth recovered from an individual buried at St. Peter’s Square, Berlin. Tooth enamel was sampled and analysed for strontium (Sr) and oxygen (O) isotope compositions to investigate the individual's geographic origin.
Figure 2: Distribution of individuals among five strontium isotope groups for the three earliest burial periods. Colour coding corresponds to the 87Sr/86Sr ranges shown in the regional strontium isotope map (Fig. 3). Individuals assigned to groups 1.1 and 1.2 represent the local population of Berlin and its surroundings, whereas the remaining groups indicate people who spent their childhood elsewhere. (from Rath et al. (2026), CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Figure 3: Regional isotope maps and reconstructed places of origin for the individuals shown in Figure 2. (a) Map of biologically available strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr). (b) Map of oxygen isotope compositions (δ18O) in precipitation (https://nucleus. iaea.org/wiser). c) Likely childhood origins of the analysed individuals, identified by matching isotope signatures preserved in their tooth enamel to the regional isotope patterns shown in (a) and (b). Thick black lines indicate national borders; thin black lines mark physiographic regions. Abbreviations for physiographic regions are: BCB - Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, CB - Chemnitz Basin, EG - Egergraben, FE - Fichtelgebirge/ Erzgebirge, ENGB - Eastern North German Basin, HB - Hessian Basin, HM - Harz Mountains, LB - Lusatian Block, LSB - Lower Saxony Basin, NSCV - North Saxon Volcanic Complex, PB - Polish Basin, SGB - South German Basin, SGM - Saxon Granulite Massif, SHB - Subhercynian Basin, TB - Thuringian Basin, TFB - Thuringian Forest Basin, TFSB - Thuringian-Franconian Slate Belt, WNGB - Western North German Basin. (from Rath et al. (2026), CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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