The First Temperate Neolithic farmers and their herds: new archaeozoological and radiocarbon evidence from North Macedonia (original) (raw)

2024, World Neolithic Congress 2024, 4-8 November 2024. Abstracts

Over the last couple of decades, extensive archaeozoological and aDNA studies have securely placed the origin of animal domestication in the Near East. From this area, humans and domesticated animals (sheep, goat, cattle and pig) gradually spread to the Aegean, the Balkans, and ultimately to the rest of Europe. Thus, the farming groups dispersing into the interior of the Balkans in the late 7th millennium cal BC were the first to introduce Mediterranean livestock beyond its natural climatic range. Due to its particular location, between the Mediterranean Greece and the Central Balkans, and given its distinct forms of Early Neolithic material culture, North Macedonia represents one of the key areas relevant for the understanding of the spread of farming. Nevertheless, due to the uneven level of research and publication, this process is still far from understood. In particular, the studies of animal bones from the Early Neolithic sites in the region have been few and far between. In this paper, we present new radiocarbon dates on animal bones and new results of the analysis of faunal assemblages from several Early Neolithic sites (Vrbjanska Čuka, Govrlevo, Mogila-Školska Tumba, Tumba-Optičari) in North Macedonia, an area which had previously been insufficiently studied from an archaeozoological perspective. We consider the taxonomic composition, mortality profiles, taphonomic traces and contextual provenance of faunal remains, in order to infer about animal husbandry practices amongst the First Temperate Neolithic communities in the Sub-Mediterranean zone, and identify potential spatial and temporal variations.