Comment on: "A novel approach to peatlands as archives of total cumulative spatial pollution loads from atmospheric deposition of airborne elements complementary to EMEP data: Priority pollutants (Pb, Cd, Hg)" by Ewa Miszczak, Sebastian Stefaniak, Adam Michczyński, Eiliv Steinnes and Irena Twardowska

A recent paper by Miszczak et al. (2020) examines metal contamination of mires in Poland and Norway. The authors conclude that lead (Pb) records in ombrotrophic peatlands cannot be used to reconstruct the chronological history of anthropogenic activities due to post-depositional mobility of the metal. We contest this general conclusion which stands in contrast with a significant body of literature demonstrating that Pb is largely immobile in the vast majority of ombrotrophic peatlands. Our aim is to reaffirm the crucial contribution that peat records have made to our knowledge of atmospheric Pb contamination. In addition, we reiterate the necessity of following established protocols to produce reliable records of anthropogenic Pb contamination in environmental archives.

Multi-isotope evidence for the emergence of cultural alterity in Late Neolithic Europe

The coexistence of cultural identities and their interaction is a fundamental topic of social sciences that is not easily addressed in prehistory. Differences in mortuary treatment can help approach this issue. Here, we present a multi-isotope study to track both diet and mobility through the life histories of 32 broadly coeval Late Neolithic individuals interred in caves and in megalithic graves of a restricted region of northern Iberia. The results show significant differences in infant- and child-rearing practices, in subsistence strategies, and in landscape use between burial locations. From this, we posit that the presence of communities with distinct lifestyles and cultural backgrounds is a primary reason for Late Neolithic variability in burial location in Western Europe and provides evidence of an early "them and us" scenario. We argue that this differentiation could have played a role in the building of lasting structures of socioeconomic inequality and, occasionally, violent conflict.

PLANET TOPERS: Planets, Tracing the Transfer, Origin, Preservation, and Evolution of their ReservoirS

The Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) 'PLANET TOPERS' (Planets: Tracing the Transfer, Origin, Preservation, and Evolution of their Reservoirs) addresses the fundamental understanding of the thermal and compositional evolution of the different reservoirs of planetary bodies (core, mantle, crust, atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and space) considering interactions and feedback mechanisms. Here we present the first results after 2 years of project work.