Assessing the archaeological data for wool-bearing sheep during the Middle to Late Neolithic at Bronocice, Poland

Approaching sheep herds origins and the emergence of the wool economy in continental Europe during the Bronze Age

“…Benecke 1994;Bökönyi 1974;Ryder 1983). Morphological studies of central European faunal assemblages from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age show for instance that there was a large variety in sheep sizes and that some regional differences existed (Bökönyi 1974;Grömer and Saliari 2018;Pipes et al 2014;Schmölcke et al 2018). Although such data cannot provide information as to the eventual variety of sheep fleeces, it suggests that different types of sheep were already present in the area at the end of the third millennium BCE.…”

“…Sheep/goats were probably initially domesticated for meat consumption and eventually their skin and milk became valuable too. Throughout the Neolithic period all over Eurasia, with possible exceptions (Grabundžija and Russo 2016;Pipes et al 2014;Shislina et al 2003), there is no conclusive evidence for the use of wool (e.g. Barber 1991; Greenfield 2010; Marciniak 2011) in textile production, while both sheep and goat skins were clearly exploited for clothing (Hollemeyer et al 2012;O'Sullivan et al 2016;Rast-Eicher 2012).…”

“…Since aDNA analyses of pig indicate that domesticated pigs spread from Asia via the Danube to central and northern Europe (Larson et al 2007), we might imagine that domestic caprines were introduced in a similar way. Neolithic sheep/ goats from continental Europe also appear to have been morphologically different (size, presence and shape of the horns) through time and regions, and environmental factors, among other things, possibly affected health and characteristics of the sheep/goat population (Bökönyi 1974;Grömer and Saliari 2018;Pipes et al 2014). Such factors may have had an impact on the success of different waves of introductions (cf.…”

Tools tell tales – climate trends changing threads in the prehistoric Pannonian Plain

“…The earliest direct evidence of wool, respectively woollen finds from Germany (Rast-Eicher 2014.16) and the North Caucasus (Shishlina et al 2003), when observed in the framework of changed herding strategies revealed in the contemporary contexts of South East and Central Europe 1 11 1 , intensified sheep husbandry recorded at some sites 1 12 2 and the spin-11 Regarding Central Europe, analysed faunal evidence from the Bronocice site in South Eastern Poland (Pipes et al 2014) suggest that sheep rearing intensified during the second half of the 4 th millennium BC (Funnel Beaker horizon). Indeed, the increased herd sizes reported from the site revealed that the majority of animals were slaughtered as adults.…”

Gaining traction on cattle exploitation: zooarchaeological evidence from the Neolithic Western Balkans

“…2012; Arbuckle 2014; Breniquet & Michel 2014; Greenfield 2014a & b; Pipes et al . 2014; Greenfield & Arnold 2015; Becker et al . 2016; Spiteri et al .…”