Kapiteljska njiva and Mestne njive cemeteries in Novo mesto: the perspective from elemental and isotopic proxies

Slovenia’s position at a north-south and east-west crossing point has had a decisive influence on its (pre)history over thousands of years. One of the most important centers that underlines this idea is located in the area that is nowadays the city of Novo mesto. Here, on a “peninsula” on the Krka River, there are several archaeological sites spanning from the Late Bronze Age, through the Iron Ages, to the Roman period and beyond. From this archaeologically rich and diverse area, the Dolenjski muzej Novo mesto provided 127 samples of cremated human remains from 86 graves from the Kapiteljska njiva and Mestne njive cemeteries. The anthropological analysis was carried out at the Centre or Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology (CIRA) of the University of Ljubljana, while further analyses were carried out by the Archaeology, Environmental Changes, and Geo-Chemistry (AMGC) research group at the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (VUB) (Belgium). Analyses were carried out by HR-ICP-MS, MC-ICP-MS, and ICP-QQQ-MS, yielding a rich dataset consisting of elemental and isotopic data for a total of 97 bone samples. Both trends by grave as well as per age are identified here. Interestingly, there also appears to be a potential correlation between the combined dataset of 87Sr/86Sr values, Sr concentrations, and salt consumption, which could in turn indicate different dietary habits of different periods and populations. These global results allow us to better understand the daily lives of the populations that roamed this area in the past, and the overall (pre)history of this important area in Europe.