Supplementary material SM11.

Pastoral nomadism is of great cultural and economic importance in several regions of the world today. However, documenting ancient patterns of mobility in societies where pastoralism was central is challenging and requires tailored approaches and methodologies. Here we use strontium, oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses of dental enamel, together with a local strontium isoscape, to reconstruct the mobility patterns of seven domestic horses deposited in a Late Bronze Age grave from western Mongolia. Radiocarbon indicates that the animals were deposited within a short period of time, 3000 years ago. The isotope time series obtained from tooth enamel shows that four of the seven horses exhibited a common pattern characterized by a high frequency of mobility, suggesting that in this area (1) cyclical pastoral mobility dates back at least to the Late Bronze Age and (2) the animals belonged to the same herding family, implying that only a small community was involved in the funerary rite of this structure. The data show that the other three horse individuals had a distinct mobility pattern and that one was not from the local area, pointing to flexibility in mobility patterns over time or circulation of animals between herding groups. These results illustrate the power of the isotopic approach to reconstruct animal biographies and effectively address the archaeology of pastoral nomadism and mobility.时至今日，游牧业在全球诸多地区仍具备举足轻重的文化与经济价值。然而，要记录以游牧业为核心的古代社会的移动模式颇具挑战，亟需定制化的研究路径与方法体系。本研究针对蒙古西部一处青铜时代晚期墓葬中出土的7匹家马，通过牙釉质的锶、氧、碳同位素分析，并结合当地锶同位素景观（strontium isoscape），重建了这批家马的移动模式。放射性碳定年（Radiocarbon）结果显示，这些马匹是在距今3000年左右的短时段内被安葬的。从牙釉质中获取的同位素时间序列分析表明，7匹马中有4匹呈现出高频移动的共同特征，这揭示该区域存在两大结论：其一，周期性游牧移动的历史至少可追溯至青铜时代晚期；其二，这批马匹同属一个放牧家族，暗示该墓葬的丧葬仪式仅涉及小型社群。数据同时显示，剩余3匹个体马的移动模式差异显著，其中1匹并非本地起源个体，这反映出随时间推移移动模式的灵活性，或是不同放牧群体间的牲畜流通现象。上述研究结果彰显了同位素分析方法在重建动物生平史方面的应用潜力，同时为游牧业与移动模式考古学研究提供了高效的解决方案。