Early herding at Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş (early sixth millennium BC, Romania): environments and seasonality from stable isotope analysis
Résumé
Stable isotope analyses were conducted on faunal remains from the site of Măgura-Boldul lui Moş
Ivănuş with the objective of characterizing the environments and seasonality of husbandry in the
earliest Neolithic (Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Starčevo-Criş I) of southern Romania. Results from bone
collagen analysis indicate extensive herding strategies for cattle and pigs. However, sequential analysis
in tooth enamel also provides evidence for winter leaf foddering in one bovine, potentially kept by the
settlement over winter. In some instances, sheep were fed a 13C-enriched resource in late winter, which
may have also coincided with lactation. It could not be determined whether this contribution was from
C3 or C4 plants. Although isolated, these findings may be important in evaluating how early agricultural
communities dealt with environmental constraints. These results are also interpreted with
reference to the models of intensive mixed farming systems recently proposed by Bogaard (2004) and
Halstead (2006).
Loading...