Early Dalmatian farmers specialized in sheep husbandry
Sierra Sainz-Aja, Alejandro (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Balasse, Marie (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (França))
Radović, Sinisa (Institute for Quaternary Palaeontology and Geology (Croàcia))
Orton, David (University of York. BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, Environment Building)
Fiorillo, Denis (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (França))
Presslee, Samantha (University of York. Department of Chemistry)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	The spread of farming in the central and western Mediterranean took place rapidly, linked to the Impressa Ware. The Impressa Ware originated somewhere in the southern Adriatic and spread westwards across the Mediterranean. These early farmers had an economy based on cereal agriculture and caprine husbandry, but there is still little information on how this agropastoral system functioned. This study aims to unravel the farming practices of the early Dalmatian farmers linked to the Impressa culture by using an integrated analysis, combining archaeozoology, palaeoproteomics and stable isotopes, applied to the faunal assemblages of Tinj-Podlivade and Crno Vrilo. The results show: (1) the composition of the flocks was overwhelmingly sheep; (2) sheep exploitation at both sites was similar, focusing on milk and meat; (3) sheep reproduction was concentrated at the beginning of winter, with no reproduction in autumn as in later sites in the western Mediterranean. We conclude that a common animal economy existed at both sites, which could be related to the mobility practiced by these early farming societies throughout the Mediterranean.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Anthropology ; Archaeology ; Cultural evolution
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 13 (june 2023) , ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37516-z
PMID: 37365303

13 p, 1.8 MB

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