Geophysics and Archaeology of Bronze Age Settlements - A Case Study from Kamennyi Ambar Fortified Settlement (South Urals

Epimakhov, Andrey; Berseneva, Natalia; Fedorova, N. V.; Noskevich, V.V.

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.201602029

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The archaeological site complex of Kamennyi Ambar, located along the Karagaily‐Ayat River within the southeastern Ural Mountains, contains an enclosed settlement (Kamennyi Ambar) and associated cemetery KA‐5 (Figure ). This complex has been systematically investigated since the 1980s with more recent field studies including geophysical prospection and large‐scale excavation since the early 2000s (Epimakhov, ; Hanks & Doonan, ; Hanks, Epimakhov, & Renfrew, ; Krause & Koryakova, ; Merrony, Hanks, & Doonan, ; Tarasov, ; Zdanovich & Batanina, ). Excavation of the cemetery was carried out by Epimakhov from 1994 to 1995, and 2002 to 2003, and resulted in the examination of three barrows containing 35 grave pits and nearly 100 human skeletons.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weaning practices among pastoralists: New evidence of infant feeding patterns from Bronze Age Eurasia

Miller

Hanks

Judd

et al. 2016

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: This paper investigates infant feeding practices through stable carbon (d 13 C) and nitrogen (d 15 N) isotopic analyses of human bone collagen from Kamennyi Ambar 5, a Middle Bronze Age cemetery located in central Eurasia. The results presented are unique for the time period and region, as few cemeteries have been excavated to reveal a demographic cross-section of the population. Studies of weaning among pastoral societies are infrequent and this research adds to our knowledge of the timing, potential supplementary foods, and cessation of breastfeeding practices.Materials and methods: Samples were collected from 41 subadults (<15 years) and 27 adults (151 years). Isotopic reference sets from adult humans as well as faunal remains were utilized as these form the primary and complementary foods fed to infants.Results: Slight shifts in d 13 C and d 15 N values revealed that weaning was a multi-stage process (breastfeeding, weaning, and complete cessation of nursing) that began at 6 months of age, occurred over several years of early childhood, and was completed by 4 years of age. Discussion:Our results indicate that weaning was a multi-stage process that was unique among late prehistoric pastoralist groups in Eurasia that were dependent on milk products as a supplementary food. Our discussion centers on supporting this hypothesis with modern information on central and east Eurasian herding societies including the age at which complementary foods are introduced, the types of complementary foods, and the timing of the cessation of breastfeeding.Integral to this work is the nature of pastoral economies and their dependence on animal products, the impact of complementary foods on nutrition and health, and how milk processing may have affected nutrition content and digestibility of foods. This research on Eurasian pastoralists provides insights into the complexities of weaning among prehistoric pastoral societies as well as the potential for different complementary foods to be incorporated into infant diets in the past. K E Y W O R D S dairy products, life histories, paleodiet, Sintashta, stable isotope analysis 1 | I N T R O D U C T I O N Research on ancient weaning has often focused on agricultural societies with access to domesticated grains, rather than pastoral groups that often lacked cultivars. Our study investigates weaning practices among pastoralists in the Eurasian steppe to determine if unique patterns of weaning are evident when complementary foods focus on ani-mal products rather than domesticated grains. Recent stable isotopic and paleobotanical studies indicate that the pastoral societies under study had a diet based primarily on livestock complemented by wild plants and fauna, but lacking cultivars (Hanks et al., forthcoming; R€ uhl, Herbig, & Stobbe, 2015;Ventresca Miller et al., 2014). We hypothesize that pastoral societies using animal products as the primary complementary food in weaning, rather than domesticated grains, may be Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 2017; 162: 409-422 wileyonlinelibrary...

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%