PALEOECONOMY OF THE CENTRAL BALKANS - A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE LATE NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE (EASTERN EUROPE, FAUNAL ANALYSIS).
Item
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Title
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PALEOECONOMY OF THE CENTRAL BALKANS - A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE LATE NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE (EASTERN EUROPE, FAUNAL ANALYSIS).
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Identifier
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AAI8601648
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identifier
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8601648
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Creator
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GREENFIELD, HASKEL JOSEPH.
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Contributor
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Thomas McGovern
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Archaeology
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Abstract
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The onset of the Bronze Age in eastern Europe was a time of dramatic change. The archaeological record is full of examples of changes in settlement patterns, mortuary practices, and artifactual inventories. Many explanatory models have been proposed for the seeming upheaval at the end of the Neolithic, including migration, diffusion, and local evolution. However, most have failed to integrate shifts in the subsistence base into descriptions of this transformation. This is largely due to the dearth of subsistence-related data. The implications of these explanatory models will be explored in this thesis. Newly gathered zooarchaeological data from several seasons of research in Yugoslavia on late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites will be presented, with particular attention to the interrelationship between subsistence and settlement. It is argued that the economic and settlement strategies practiced during the Late Neolithic were fundamentally different from those during the Bronze Age. In the former, the emphasis in animal exploitation was placed upon "primary" products, such as meat and hide. Herds of domestic animals were grazed within a limited range of altitudinally differentiated environments. Lowland herders were not moving their herds far into the highlands during warmer times of the year. In contrast, during the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, herding strategies shifted toward the exploitation of "secondary" products, such as milk, wool, and traction. Herds of domestic animals were moved from lowland to highland pastures as part of an annual transhumant trek. The movement of herds was timed to coincide with the appearance of richer pastures or forage in the higher altitudes as the temperature warmed. Herds were moved down into the more protective lowlands for the winter. At the same time, exploitation of wild resources decreases, but not uniformly across the region. Lowland sites, except in particularly rich micro-environments (such as on the Danube), contain very few wild animal remains. In contrast, highland localities continue to exploit wild animals as important supplements to the subsistence system. These findings were particularly important because they signal the advent of a pattern of animal management that persisted from the advent of the Bronze Age into modern times.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Anthropology
