Analysis of Ancient Teeth Suggests Neolithic Cattle Grazed at Home and Away
Analysis of strontium isotopes in teeth of Neolithic cattle suggests that early Europeans used specialized strategies to manage herding, according to a study by the universities of Basel, Southampton, Bristol and the The Curt-Engelhorn-Centre for Archaeometry. It’s thought these strategies helped to maintain larger herds, and may have contributed to increased social inequality.
Findings are published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Archaeologist Professor Alistair Pike, from the University of Southampton, who worked on the study, explained: “Over the course of the Neolithic period, cattle became increasingly important for milk, manure and animal power rather than just for meat. This led to larger herds, and greater demand for grazing resources. To accommodate these larger herds, it has always been speculated that farmers needed to find grazing grounds further away from permanent settlements – however, until our study, there has been little direct evidence for this.”
Strontium isotopes are found in bones and teeth and its geochemical signature can be used to infer geographic location. Scientists can relate findings from their analyses to the isotopic composition of local soils and plants (which can vary over relatively short distances), thus, in this case, indicating different areas the cattle may have been led to for grazing.
The researchers found that molar teeth from the cattle in this study had three strontium patterns, which likely reflected three different herding strategies. The first pattern was consistent with the local strontium baseline, suggesting cattle were grazing locally; the second pattern was a mix of local and non-local strontium signatures, suggesting seasonal movement; and the third was mostly non-local strontium signatures, suggesting year-round herding away from the main settlement.
In addition, the researchers found that the three herding strategies were not uniformly represented in various areas of the settlement. This suggests differential access to the most favorable grazing grounds, which could have contributed to social inequalities between groups or households.
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Citation:
High-resolution isotopic evidence of specialised cattle herding in the European Neolithichttp://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180164
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2017/07/analysis-of-ancient-teeth-suggests.html
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