The oxygen suggests a colder childhood environment; the strontium is more consistent with the local area.

Dr.

Sarah Stark, the human skeletal biologist at Historic England who was involved in the research, summarized the ambiguity precisely: “The science does not point to one simple homeland for this individual.”

Several interpretations are consistent with the data.

He might have been born locally, in a region of the Humber area that was cold enough to match the oxygen signature.

He might have been born in a cold northern region and moved to the Barton area as an adult, spending enough time there that the strontium in his adult bone tissue reflects the local geology while the childhood oxygen signature is preserved in his tooth enamel, which formed early and does not remodel.