Herd management and subsistence practices as inferred from isotopic analysis of animals and plants at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus

Abstract

The Bronze Age village of Politiko-Troullia, located in the foothills of the copper-bearing Troodos mountains of central Cyprus, was occupied ~2050–1850 cal BCE. Excavated evidence shows that community activities included copper metallurgy (ore processing, smelting and casting), crop cultivation, and rearing of livestock. Faunal analysis reveals day-to-day subsistence practices that included consumption of sheep, goat, cattle, and pig, as well as community-scale ritual feasting focused on fallow deer, Dama dama mesopotamica. In this paper, we present bone collagen stable isotope data from these taxa to infer how these animals were managed. We incorporate stable isotope baselines calculated from modern cereal grains and compare these to archaeological seeds from Politiko-Troullia. Mean values of δ13C and δ15N cluster for livestock consistent with a diet of C3 plants, with a wider range in goats that suggests free-browsing herds. Higher δ15N values in cattle may reflect supplemental feeding or grazing in manured fields. Plant isotope values suggest livestock diets were predominantly composed of cultivated taxa. In contrast, deer and pig bones produce more negative mean δ13C and δ15N values suggesting that the villagers of Politiko-Troullia complemented their management of domesticated animals with hunting of wild deer and feral pigs in the woodlands surrounding their village.

PREHISTORIC BRONZE AGE RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY AT POLITIKO-TROULLIA, CYPRUS

“…In concert, this evidence reflects intensive premodern management of the local landscape, including agricultural and copper ore processing (Fall et al 2012; Galletti et al 2013; Ridder et al 2017). Spatial analyses of these agrarian features, and rich excavated evidence of seeds, charcoal and animal bones document a mixed Bronze Age subsistence regime of grape and olive arboriculture, sheep/goat and cattle husbandry, plus hunting of wild deer and feral pigs by villagers living on the verge of oak and pine woodlands (Klinge and Fall 2010; Falconer and Fall 2013; Fall et al 2015; Ridder et al 2017; Metzger et al 2021; Pilaar Birch et al 2022).…”