Animal husbandry at Arslantepe from the 5TH to the 1ST millennium BCE: An isotope approach

Abstract

This study integrates isotopic analyses of 279 animal (domestic and wild) skeletal remains from the site of Arslantepe (Eastern Anatolia). The O, C and N isotopic analyses provide multiple information on husbandry strategies and on climatic variation from Late Chalcolithic to Iron Age (4700-712 BCE). Significantly, the study indicates that goats and sheep are the species that give the best information in terms of variation of climatic conditions. Pigs and cattle give complementary information mainly related to breading practices. This is because they are obliged drinkers, needing to be watered in the driest periods. Our analyses point out that, even when the climate was more arid, water sources were always present in the area. Cattle isotope values also indicate that fertilization of fields was already practiced during the Chalcolithic and that, in the period of stable occupation of the site, agriculture and stock farming were carried out in the same fields.This information, combined with the historical events and characters of the settlement in the different investigated periods, provide an invaluable and new point of view on the influence that political, social, and economic dynamics and organization had on the strategies of animal economy.