Spatial and temporal disparities in human subsistence in the Neolithic Rhineland gateway

Casanova, Emmanuelle; Arbogast, Rose‐Marie; Denaire, Anthony; Jeunesse, Christian; Lefranc, Philippe; Evershed, Richard P.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105215

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The presence of dairy lipid residues in ceramic pots provides direct evidence of milk processing in the sixth millennium BC in the Balkans 29 , 31 , where they were in some instances directly dated 31 , as well as in the Carpathian Basin 24 , southern France 28 , eastern France 60 and in Poland 27 , 61 , 62 . In the early Neolithic contexts in Central Europe, cattle predominate in the faunal assemblages and demographic management inferred from mortality profiles strongly suggests milk exploitation 30 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making

Balasse

Gillis

Živaljević

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Present-day domestic cattle are reproductively active throughout the year, which is a major asset for dairy production. Large wild ungulates, in contrast, are seasonal breeders, as were the last historic representatives of the aurochs, the wild ancestors of cattle. Aseasonal reproduction in cattle is a consequence of domestication and herding, but exactly when this capacity developed in domestic cattle is still unknown and the extent to which early farming communities controlled the seasonality of reproduction is debated. Seasonal or aseasonal calving would have shaped the socio-economic practices of ancient farming societies differently, structuring the agropastoral calendar and determining milk availability where dairying is attested. In this study, we reconstruct the calving pattern through the analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios of cattle tooth enamel from 18 sites across Europe, dating from the 6th mill. cal BC (Early Neolithic) in the Balkans to the 4th mill. cal BC (Middle Neolithic) in Western Europe. Seasonal calving prevailed in Europe between the 6th and 4th millennia cal BC. These results suggest that cattle agropastoral systems in Neolithic Europe were strongly constrained by environmental factors, in particular forage resources. The ensuing fluctuations in milk availability would account for cheese-making, transforming a seasonal milk supply into a storable product.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making

Balasse

Gillis

Živaljević

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…3‰ more enriched than ruminant fats 56 , would produce the observed isotopic shift. Pigs are more frequent in faunal assemblages to the west of the Rhine during the LBK 57 , and pottery lipids 6 and yet we still observe low dairy lipids δ 13 C values. Processing of dairy and freshwater aquatic products in the same vessel would lead to negative shifts in δ 13 C values.…”

Section: Impact Of Climate and Other Factors On Carbon Stable Isotopesmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…The traditional image of these communities is one of homogenity 8 , partly reinforced by ancient DNA analysis where large-scale genomic studies suggest that LBK communities were the outcome of monolithic demic diffusion 10,11 . However, regionally focused studies demonstrate that complex interactions between local hunter-gatherers and farmers existed 12 as well as subtle differences in animal husbandry strategies with greater exploitation of pigs in certain areas, such as Alsace 6,13,14 . Moreover, detailed palaeodietary studies indicate signi cant differences in human diet between regional populations 8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stable isotope signatures of domesticated animals found on archaeology sites can be used to track the adaptation of husbandry strategies by early farmers to local ecosystems. Herein, we analyse δ 13 C, δ 18 O and δ 15 N values from bone and dentine collagen and bioapatite from cattle, and pottery dairy lipids from unpublished and published studies 6,8,19,27,28,33,35,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] of early farming contexts characterised by a material culture with numerous shared elements across a wide geographical range (SI Table 1-5, 1,541 isotopic measurements, 61 sites; Figure 1). Together with site-speci c paleoenvironmental data, we characterise pasture and forage strategies adopted by pioneer farming communities in central Europe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest Ecosystems and Evolution of Cattle Husbandry Practices of the Earliest Central European Farming Societies

Gillis

Kendall

Roffet‐Salque

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Stable isotope signatures of domesticates found on archaeology sites provide information about past human behaviour, such as the evolution and adaptation of husbandry strategies. A dynamic phase in cattle husbandry evolution is during the 6th millennium BCE, where the first cattle herders of central Europe spread rapidly through diverse forested ecological niches, where little is known about pasturing strategies. Here we investigate cattle pasturing and foddering practices using a multi-regional dataset of stable isotope values (δ13C and δ18O; compound-specific stable isotopic analysis δ15N-amino acids and δ13C-dairy fats) measured from cattle bone and teeth, and pottery residues from early farming contexts, and palaeoenvironmental information. Our analysis reveals that farmers practiced different pasturing strategies with the intensive use of forested ecosystems in some areas for both graze and seasonal forage. We propose that the diversity of strategies is related to the adaptation of herding to new environments, which had a positive impact on cattle breeding and milk availability for human consumption.

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“…Our first radiocarbon dates of pottery vessels from well-dated sites/cultural phases proved to be entirely compatible with site chronologies and radiocarbon dates on conventional materials (Casanova et al 2020a). We then applied the new CSRA method to the dating of sites lacking conventionally dateable materials (Casanova et al 2020a;Stojanovski et al 2020a), to verify the antiquity of lipids within pots (Dunne et al 2019;Fewlass et al 2020), to directly date the use of specific food products (ruminant dairy and adipose fats) (Casanova et al 2020a(Casanova et al , 2020bStojanovski et al 2020b) and to evaluate marine reservoir effects arising from marine product processing in pottery vessels (Casanova et al 2020c).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Generation of Two New Radiocarbon Standards for Compound-Specific Radiocarbon Analyses of Fatty Acids From Bog Butter Finds

et al. 2021

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The analysis of processing standards alongside samples for quality assurance in radiocarbon (14C) analyses is critical. Ideally, these standards should be similar both in nature and age to unknown samples. A new compound-specific approach was developed at the University of Bristol for dating pottery vessels using palmitic and stearic fatty acids extracted from within the clay matrix and isolated by preparative capillary gas chromatography. Obtaining suitable potsherds for use as processing standards in such analyses is not feasible, so we suggest that bog butter represents an ideal material for such purposes. We sampled ca. 450 g from two bog butter specimens and homogenized them by melting. We verified the homogeneity of both specimens by characterization of their lipid composition, δ13C values of individual lipids, and both bulk- and compound-specific radiocarbon analyses on 10 sub-samples of each bog butter specimen. The weighted means of all 14C measurements on the bog butter standards are 3777 ± 4 BP (IB33) and 338 ± 3 BP (IB38), thereby providing age-relevant standards for archaeological and historical fatty acids and ensuring the accuracy of radiocarbon determinations of lipids using a compound-specific approach. These new secondary standards will be subjected to an intercomparison exercise to provide robust consensus values.

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Spatial and temporal disparities in human subsistence in the Neolithic Rhineland gateway

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making

Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making

Forest Ecosystems and Evolution of Cattle Husbandry Practices of the Earliest Central European Farming Societies

Generation of Two New Radiocarbon Standards for Compound-Specific Radiocarbon Analyses of Fatty Acids From Bog Butter Finds

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