Early herding at Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş (early sixth millennium bc, Romania): environments and seasonality from stable isotope analysis

Abstract

Stable isotope analyses were conducted on faunal remains from the site of Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş with the objective of characterizing the environments and seasonality of husbandry in the earliest Neolithic (Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Starčevo-Criş I) of southern Romania. Results from bone collagen analysis indicate extensive herding strategies for cattle and pigs. However, sequential analysis in tooth enamel also provides evidence for winter leaf foddering in one bovine, potentially kept by the settlement over winter. In some instances, sheep were fed a ¹³C-enriched resource in late winter, which may have also coincided with lactation. It could not be determined whether this contribution was from C₃ or C₄ plants. Although isolated, these findings may be important in evaluating how early agricultural communities dealt with environmental constraints. These results are also interpreted with reference to the models of intensive mixed farming systems recently proposed by and .

Dans le but de caractériser les environnements et la saisonnalité de l'élevage au début du Néolithique (Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Starčevo-Criş I) dans le Sud de la Roumanie, des analyses d'isotopes stables ont été effectuées sur des restes fauniques du site de Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş. Les résultats des analyses du collagène des os montrent l'existence de stratégies d'élevage extensif pour les bovins et les porcs. Toutefois des analyses séquentielles de l'émail des dents montrent également un bovin qui était nourri de feuilles en hiver et probablement gardé près du site durant cette période. Dans certains cas, les moutons étaient nourris de ressources alimentaires enrichies de ¹³C à la fin de l'hiver, coïncidant peut-être avec la période de lactation. Il n'a pas été possible de déterminer si cet apport provenait de plantes C₃ ou C₄. Bien qu'isolées, ces découvertes pourront être importantes dans l'évaluation de la façon dont les premières communautés agricoles ont géré les contraintes environnementales. Ces résultats ont également été interprétés en se référant aux modèles de systèmes d'agriculture mixte intensive proposés récemment par ) et ). Translation by Isabelle Gerges.

Anhand tierischer Überreste vom Fundplatz Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş wurden Analysen stabiler Isotopen durchgeführt, um die Umwelt und die Saisonalität der Viehzucht im frühesten Neolithikum (Gruppe Gura Baciului-Cârcea/Starčevo-Criş I) in Südrumänien zu charakterisieren. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen des Knochenkollagens zeigen umfassende Strategien der Herdenhaltung von Rind und Schwein. Jedoch gibt es aufgrund der Reihenuntersuchung von Zahnschmelz auch Hinweise auf Winterheufütterung eines Rindes, das möglicherweise während des Winters in der Siedlung gehalten wurde. In einigen Fällen wurden Schafe zum Winterende hin mit ¹³C-angereicherten Ressourcen gefüttert, was mit dem Zeitpunkt der Laktation übereingestimmt haben könnte. Es konnte allerdings nicht ermittelt werden, ob es sich bei den Quellen um C₃- oder C₄-Pflanzen gehandelt hat. Wenngleich sie derzeit isoliert sind, könnten diese Funde dennoch wichtig sein, um zu bestimmen, wie früh landwirtschaftliche Gemeinschaften bereits auf Umwelteinschränkungen reagierten. Diese Ergebnisse werden zudem unter Einbeziehung der Modelle von intensiven gemischten Landwirtschaftssystemen, die kürzlich von ) und ) vorgestellt worden sind, interpretiert. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg.

Keywords:

• early Neolithic Romania
• carbon
• nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes
• husbandry practices
• cattle
• sheep
• pig

Mots clés:

• Néolithique ancien roumain
• isotopes stables du carbone, de l'azote et le l'oxygène
• pratiques d'élevage
• bovins
• mouton
• porc

Stichworte:

• Rumänien im Frühneolithikum
• stabile Isotope von Kohlenstoff
• Stickstoff und Sauerstoff
• landwirtschaftliche Praktiken
• Rind
• Schaf
• Schwein

Acknowledgements

Archaeological research at the site of Măgura was undertaken between 2005 and 2008 as part of ‘The Beginnings of European Civilisation. Neo-Eneolithic in the Lower Danube Project’ (ICE) directed by Dr Radian Andreescu. This research was funded by the ERC Starting Grant SIANHE (GA 202881, dir. M. Balasse) and by the CNCS–UEFISCDI (project PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-1015, dir. A. Balasescu). We would like to thank four anonymous reviewers for their careful comments and suggestions for additional reading, which were considerably helpful in improving this contribution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie Balasse

Marie Balasse is a zooarchaeologist, researcher at the CNRS, affiliated to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. She is a specialist in the stable isotope analysis of faunal remains. Her main area of interest is husbandry in prehistoric times. She is directing the SIANHE ERC Starting Grant project (2008–2013) focused on herding practices in the European Neolithic.

Address: UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements, CNRS/Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Case courier 56, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France [email: [email protected]]

Adrian Bălăşescu

Adrian Bălăşescu is a zooarchaeologist at the Muzeul National de Istorie a Romaniei, Bucharest (PhD 2003 in Biology, Iasi University and PhD 2010 in History, Academy of Science, Bucharest). He has participated in various research teams at numerous archaeological excavations in Romania, France, and Armenia, being responsible mainly for the archaeozoological investigation. His background is in Balkan prehistory and he also has research interests in Armenian Neolithic and Chalcolithic zooarchaeology.

Address: Archaeological Department, National History Museum of Romania, 12 Calea Victoriei, 030026, Bucharest 3, Romania [email: [email protected]]

Anneke Janzen

Anneke Janzen is a doctoral student specializing in zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her dissertation research focuses on mobility and herd management strategies of early pastoralists in East Africa, under the supervision of Diane Gifford-Gonzalez.

Address: Department of Anthropology, 317 Social Sciences I, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA [email: [email protected]]

Joël Ughetto-Monfrin

Joël Ughetto-Monfrin is an engineer at the CNRS, working at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, where he has technical responsibility of the IRMS facilities.

Address: UMR 7209, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements, CNRS/Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Case courier 56, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France [email: [email protected]]

Pavel Mirea

Pavel Mirea is an archaeologist and the director of Teleorman County Museum, Alexandria, Romania. (PhD in 2012, in History, Romanian Academy, Bucharest). He participated in excavations in Southern Romania as part of archaeological research projects (SRAP, ICE). His main scientific interest is in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of South-East Europe.

Address: Muzeul Judetean Teleorman, Str. 1848, nr. 1, 140033, Alexandria, Romania [email: [email protected]]

Radian Andreescu

Radian-Romus Andreescu is a scientific researcher in the Archaeological Department of the National History Museum of Romania. He completed a PhD, on Neolithic figurines at the Archaeological Institute ‘Vasile Pârvan’ in Bucharest (1998). He is Director of the Romanian team in the Romanian-British Southern Romania Archaeological Project. He is interested in the dynamics of human habitation in the Neolithic and in a new historical approach to prehistory

Address: Archaeological Department, National History Museum of Romania, 12 Calea Victoriei, 030026, Bucharest 3, Romania [email: [email protected]]