In this paper, we present a history of pastoralism in the ancient Near East from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. We describe the accretional development of pastoral technologies over eight ...millennia, including the productive breeding of domestic sheep, goats, and cattle in the early Neolithic and the subsequent domestication of animals used primarily for labor—donkeys, horses, and finally camels—as well as the first appearance of husbandry strategies such as penning, foddering, pasturing, young male culling, and dairy production. Despite frequent references in the literature to prehistoric pastoral nomads, pastoralism in Southwest Asia was strongly associated with sedentary communities that practiced intensive plant cultivation and was largely local in nature. There is very little evidence in prehistoric and early historic Southwest Asia to support the notion of a "dimorphic society" characterized by separate and specialized agriculturists and mobile pastoralists. Although mobile herders were present in the steppe regions of Syria by the early second millennium BC, mobile pastoralism was the exception rather than the rule at that time; its "identification" in the archaeological record frequently derives from the application of anachronistic ethnographic analogy. We conclude that pastoralism was a diverse, flexible, and dynamic adaptation in the ancient Near East and call for a reinvigorated and empirically based archaeology of pastoralism in Southwest Asia.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
This study presents the results of a major data integration project bringing together primary archaeozoological data for over 200,000 faunal specimens excavated from seventeen sites in Turkey ...spanning the Epipaleolithic through Chalcolithic periods, c. 18,000-4,000 cal BC, in order to document the initial westward spread of domestic livestock across Neolithic central and western Turkey. From these shared datasets we demonstrate that the westward expansion of Neolithic subsistence technologies combined multiple routes and pulses but did not involve a set 'package' comprising all four livestock species including sheep, goat, cattle and pig. Instead, Neolithic animal economies in the study regions are shown to be more diverse than deduced previously using quantitatively more limited datasets. Moreover, during the transition to agro-pastoral economies interactions between domestic stock and local wild fauna continued. Through publication of datasets with Open Context (opencontext.org), this project emphasizes the benefits of data sharing and web-based dissemination of large primary data sets for exploring major questions in archaeology (Alternative Language Abstract S1).
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Ancient genomes and West Eurasian history Arbuckle, Benjamin S.; Schwandt, Zoe
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2022, Volume:
377, Issue:
6609
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Storytelling with ancient DNA reveals challenges and potential for writing new histories
Innovations in the sequencing of ancient (>100 years old) DNA have provided a new source of historical ...information that is complementary to ancient texts, oral traditions, and the archaeological record. The geographic application of this new technology has been uneven, focusing largely on Western and Northern Europe. On pages 939, 940, and 982 of this issue, Lazaridis
et al.
(
1
–
3
) report leveraging newly sequenced ancient DNA from the remains of 777 humans from across West Eurasia. They describe the genomic history of the “Southern Arc,” the region surrounding the Black Sea and including Southeastern and Eastern Europe, the Anatolian peninsula, the Pontic steppe, and the Caucasus. Focusing on the relative contributions of five ancestral West Eurasian populations, they reveal shifting proportions of these lineages, which are used to reconstruct population movements extending from the Neolithic (10,000 BCE) to the Ottoman (∼1700 CE) periods and representing the demographic foundations of the modern West Eurasian world.
Current genetic data are equivocal as to whether goat domestication occurred multiple times or was a singular process. We generated genomic data from 83 ancient goats (51 with genome-wide coverage) ...from Paleolithic to Medieval contexts throughout the Near East. Our findings demonstrate that multiple divergent ancient wild goat sources were domesticated in a dispersed process that resulted in genetically and geographically distinct Neolithic goat populations, echoing contemporaneous human divergence across the region. These early goat populations contributed differently to modern goats in Asia, Africa, and Europe. We also detect early selection for pigmentation, stature, reproduction, milking, and response to dietary change, providing 8000-year-old evidence for human agency in molding genome variation within a partner species.
This paper summarizes and interprets zooarchaeological evidence for cattle and pig domestication in Neolithic Central Anatolia. Biometric and demographic data indicate that domestic cattle first ...appear in the region in the late seventh millennium cal BC while domestic pigs are not evident until the mid fifth millennium. This places the origins of cattle and pig husbandry in Central Anatolia considerably later than in neighboring regions. Reasons for this delay in the spread of productive animal husbandry practices are explored.
► Cattle and pig management were adopted late in Central Anatolia (Turkey). ► Domestic cattle appear in the late seventh millennium cal BC. ► Domestic pigs appear in the mid fifth millennium cal BC. ► Cattle and pig management were actively rejected for millennia.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Genome-wide analysis of 67 ancient Near Eastern cattle,
remains reveals regional variation that has since been obscured by admixture in modern populations. Comparisons of genomes of early domestic ...cattle to their aurochs progenitors identify diverse origins with separate introgressions of wild stock. A later region-wide Bronze Age shift indicates rapid and widespread introgression of zebu,
from the Indus Valley. This process was likely stimulated at the onset of the current geological age, ~4.2 thousand years ago, by a widespread multicentury drought. In contrast to genome-wide admixture, mitochondrial DNA stasis supports that this introgression was male-driven, suggesting that selection of arid-adapted zebu bulls enhanced herd survival. This human-mediated migration of zebu-derived genetics has continued through millennia, altering tropical herding on each continent.
This article addresses the relationship between a major Anatolian Bronze Age center, the site of Acemhöyük, and its pastoral hinterland with a focus on understanding the nature of the interactions ...and integration between rural pastoral producers and a centralized state. Through the analysis of faunal, archaeological, and ethnohistoric evidence, it is argued that although mobile herders provisioned Acemhöyük with animal products, and the center itself was characterized by specialized systems of carcass processing and distribution, pastoralists operated largely outside of centralized controls focusing on the intensive production of wool in response to regional, rather than local, markets. These results suggest that the relationships between urban centers and their pastoral hinterlands in Bronze Age Anatolia were complex, with mobile herders likely playing a more prominent role in the development of Bronze Age commodity economies than previously realized. Bu makale Tunç Çağı'nda Anadolu'nun büyük merkezlerinden biri olan Acemhöyük'ün etrafındaki kırsal bölge ile olan ilişkisini incelemektedir. incelemenin odak noktası kırsal üreticiler ile merkezi devlet arasındaki ikili ilişkilerin ve entegrasyonun doğasını anlamaktır. Makalede, zooarkeolojik, arkeolojik ve etno-tarihsel analizlerden elde edilen bilgilere dayanılarak, bir yandan göçebe çoban toplulukların Acemhöyük'e hayvansal ürünler sağladığı, öte yandan da merkezin uzmanlaşmış et işleme ve dağıtım sistemlerine sahip olduğu öne sürülmüştür. Buna rağmen, kırsal kesimde hayvancılık aktiviteleri merkezi kontrolün dışında faaliyet göstermiş, yerel değil bölgesel pazara hitap eden yün üretimine yönelmiştir. Bu sonuçlar Tunç Çağı Anadolu'sunda merkezi yönetimler ile kırsalları arasındaki ilişkilerin karmaşık bir yapıya sahip olduğunu ve göçebe çoban topluluklarının Tunç Çağı ekonomisinde daha önce sanıldığından daha önemli bir rol oynadıklarını göstermektedir.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, INZLJ, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
Archaeological and historical data show that pastoral systems in Anatolia over the last ten thousand years were characterised by a high degree of variability in degree of mobility, land-use and ...animal preferences, target products and herd management strategies, and political organisation.
Long-distance pastoral nomadism was a historically late development in the region, occurring over the last 1,500 to 1,000 years. Ethnographic analogy currently structures the majority of archaeological conclusions concerning pre-modern pastoralism, but obscures the variability that recent
archaeological work brings to light. Multi-disciplinary studies seeking empirical data on ancient pastoralism and mobility are critical for developing a more subtle and accurate picture.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
► This paper explores the social roles of livestock in complex pre-state societies in Chalcolithic Anatolia. ► Changes in the production, distribution and consumption of livestock are documented at ...three sites in central Turkey. ► Changes in the animal economy played a central role in the rise of inequality in the Middle and Late Chalcolithic.
This paper explores the changing social and economic roles of livestock within three increasingly complex societies in Chalcolithic central Anatolia. By specifically addressing practices associated with the production, distribution and consumption of livestock, particularly sheep and goats, I show how changes in the use of animals were dynamically linked to the emergence of new sociopolitical environments. These changes, including the development of intensive caprine pastoralism and complex provisioning systems as well as an increased focus on the production of secondary products, strongly suggest that control over animals, particularly sheep, and their products played a central role in the development of increasingly complex and hierarchical social systems in MC Anatolia.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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