Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper presents new results of an interdisciplinary investigation of the diet and subsistence strategies of populations living in the North-Pontic region during the Eneolithic and the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3800 BC to the 2500 BC). New organic residue analyses of >200 sherds from five Eneolithic sites and two Early Bronze Age settlements are presented. The molecular and stable isotope results are discussed in relation to zooarchaeological evidence. Overall, the findings suggest that each community relied on either a hunting- or a husbandry-based subsistence strategy dependent upon the ecosystem in which they settled; horses and wild animals dominated subsistence in the forest-steppe communities in contrast to ruminant husbandry in the steppe.
Highlights
The vast Eurasian steppe belt has been studied by many scholars, and the exploitation of this arid zone in late prehistory has been a subject of particular interest for western researchers over the last two decades (Boyle, Renfrew, and Levine 2002; Levine, Renfrew, and Boyle 2003)
We present the results of organic residues analysis of 216 potsherds from three Mid-Eneolithic sites (Dereivka, Molyukhov Bugor and Mikhailovka I), two Late-Eneolithic sites (Mikhailovka II and Nizhniy Rogachik) and two Early Bronze Age settlements (Mikhailovka III and Generalka). These results provide opportunities to test the hypotheses that: (1) a new form of subsistence economy, pastoralism, was introduced in the North-Pontic region at around the 3rd millennium BC, and (2) that animal exploitation and dietary habits were likely driven by the local environment
The Δ13Cvalues derived from the Mid-Eneolithic potsherds are displayed in Figure 5 to allow a better comparison between different palaeo-ecosystems (Mid-Eneolithic steppe and forest-steppe sites of Dereivka, Molyukhov Bugor and Mikhailovka I)
Summary
The vast Eurasian steppe belt has been studied by many scholars, and the exploitation of this arid zone in late prehistory has been a subject of particular interest for western researchers over the last two decades (Boyle, Renfrew, and Levine 2002; Levine, Renfrew, and Boyle 2003). We present the results of organic residues analysis of 216 potsherds from three Mid-Eneolithic sites (Dereivka, Molyukhov Bugor and Mikhailovka I), two Late-Eneolithic sites (Mikhailovka II and Nizhniy Rogachik) and two Early Bronze Age settlements (Mikhailovka III and Generalka) These results provide opportunities to test the hypotheses that: (1) a new form of subsistence economy, pastoralism, was introduced in the North-Pontic region at around the 3rd millennium BC, and (2) that animal exploitation and dietary habits were likely driven by the local environment. These sites were chosen on the basis of their geographical location (forest-steppe versus steppe sites; Figure 1). The findings from the lipid biomarker and stable isotope results are interpreted in relation to previously published zooarchaeological studies (Telegin 1986; Rassamakin 1999; Kaiser 2010; Zhuravlev & Markova 2000; Zhuravlev 2008)
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