Prehistoric Mobility and Diet in the West Eurasian Steppes 3500 to 300 BC: An Isotopic Approach

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Die Reihe Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World versammelt Beitr�ge aus allen altertumswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen, von der Ur- und Fr�hgeschichte �ber die Klassische Arch�ologie bis zur antiken Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie und Theologie. Einen Schwerpunkt bilden Monographien und Sammelb�nde, in denen die Forschungsergebnisse des Exzellenzclusters Topoi vorgestellt werden. Weitere Schwerpunkte sind in Planung. Das Exzellenzcluster Topoi untersucht die Formation und Transformation von Raum und Wissen in den antiken Zivilisationen. Topoi wird von der Freien Universit�t Berlin und der Humboldt-Universit�t zu Berlin gemeinsam getragen. Partner sind die Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, das Deutsche Arch�ologische Institut, das Max-Planck-Institut f�r Wissenschaftsgeschichte und die Stiftung Preu�ischer Kulturbesitz. Topoi ist dar�ber hinaus mit vielen weiteren universit�ren und au�eruniversit�ren Einrichtungen vernetzt. N�heres unter www.topoi.org. 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Table of Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Background 2.1 Archaeological background 2.1.1 Introduction 2.1.2 The (Middle and) Late Eneolithic period in the North Pontic steppe 2.1.2.1 History of Research 2.1.2.2 Characterisation of the (Middle and) Late Eneolithic steppe cultures 2.1.2.2.1 Chronology and regional subdivision 2.1.2.2.2 Economy and interaction of the Eneolithic steppe cultures 2.1.3 The Early Bronze Age Yamnaya period 2.1.3.1 Chronology 2.1.3.2 Distribution and regional subdivision 2.1.3.3 Burial tradition 2.1.3.4 Economy 2.1.3.5 Regional variants and distinct cultures of relevance 2.1.4 The Middle Bronze Age Catacomb culture period 2.1.4.1 Chronology 2.1.4.2 Distribution and regional subdivision 2.1.4.3 Burial tradition 2.1.4.4 Economy 2.1.5 (South)westward steppe impact 2.1.5.1 History of research 2.1.5.2 Late Eneolithic period 2.1.5.3 Early Bronze Age Yamnaya horizon 2.1.5.4 Middle Bronze Age Catacomb culture horizon 2.1.6 The Iron Age Scythian period 2.1.6.1 Introduction 2.1.6.2 Chronology and distribution of the Scythian cultural groups 2.1.6.3 Historical sources of the Scythians 2.1.6.4 Characterization of the Scythian culture in respect to this study 2.1.6.5 Cultural groups touched upon in this study 2.2 Methodological background 2.2.1 The application of isotope analysis 2.2.1.1 Mobility in archaeology and the application of strontium and oxygen isotope analyses 2.2.1.2 Palaeodiet and the application of carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis 2.2.2 Tooth and bone as sample materials and information archives 2.2.3 Geology and ecology in the study region with regard to isotope analysis 3 Sample sites and Material 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 3.2.1 Carpathian-Balkan region 3.2.1.1 Bulgaria 3.2.1.2 Hungary 3.2.2 North Pontic region 3.2.2.1 Central Ukraine 3.2.2.2 East Ukraine 3.2.3 Russia 3.2.3.1 Volga region 3.2.3.2 Kuban and Northwest Caspian Sea region 3.3 Iron Age 3.3.1 North Pontic region 3.3.2 Central Asia: Berel’ 4 Mobility and Migration 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Theories on mobility and migration 4.2.1 History of research in mobility and migration theories in prehistoric archaeology 4.2.2 Mobility 4.2.2.1 Definition 4.2.2.2 Mobility models 4.2.2.3 Characteristic forms of mobility in the Eurasian steppe belt 4.2.3 Migration 4.2.3.1 Definition 4.2.3.2 Migration models 4.2.3.3 Migration in the West Eurasian steppes 4.2.4 Scientific contribution to mobility and migration research in archaeology 4.3 87Sr/86Sr analysis 4.3.1 Basics 4.3.1.1 Introduction 4.3.1.2 Strontium in tooth and bone 4.3.1.3 Definition of the ‘local’ biologically available strontium 4.3.2 Material 4.3.3 Methods 4.3.3.1 Methodology for tooth enamel samples 4.3.3.2 Methodology for comparative samples 4.3.3.3 Strontium concentration measurements 4.3.4 Results 4.3.4.1 Correction of the 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios 4.3.4.2 Results of the 87Sr/86Sr analysis 4.3.4.2.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.3.4.2.2 Iron Age 4.3.4.3 Intra-site and inter-site comparison 4.3.4.4 Inter-regional comparison 4.3.4.5 Differences related to gender and age 4.3.4.5.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.3.4.5.2 Iron Age 4.3.4.5.3 Comparison on a regional scale 4.3.4.6 Chronological differences 4.3.4.7 Strontium concentrations 4.3.5 Biological measurements of 87Sr/86Sr 4.3.5.1 Published 87Sr/86Sr data 4.3.5.2 Estimation of the ‘local’ 87Sr/86Sr range and identification of ‘locals’ and ‘non-locals’ 4.3.5.2.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.3.5.2.2 Iron Age 4.3.5.3 Evaluation of the ‘local’ 87Sr/86Sr values 4.4 δ18O analysis 4.4.1 Basics 4.4.1.1 Introduction 4.4.1.2 Variations in δ18O 4.4.1.2.1 General causes of variation 4.4.1.2.2 Seasonal variation 4.4.1.2.3 Intra-tooth and intra-species variation 4.4.1.2.4 Intra-site variation 4.4.1.3 δ18O analysis of δ18O in tooth enamel carbonate 4.4.1.4 Data conversion 4.4.1.4.1 Conversion of δ18Oc measured against V-PDB into V-SMOW data 4.4.1.4.2 Conversion into data comparable to meteoric water 4.4.1.5 Data comparison 4.4.1.5.1 Comparison to 18O results of studies in the same region 4.4.1.5.2 Comparison to 18O in modern precipitation 4.4.2 Material 4.4.3 Method 4.4.4 Results δ18Oc (V-PDB) 4.4.4.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.4.4.2 Iron Age 4.4.4.3 Intra-site and inter-site comparison 4.4.4.4 Inter-regional comparison 4.4.4.5 Gender and age related differences 4.4.4.5.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.4.4.5.2 Iron Age 4.4.4.5.3 Comparison on a regional scale 4.4.4.6 Chronological differences 4.4.5 Biological measurements of δ18O 4.4.5.1 Estimation of the ‘local’ δ18O range 4.4.5.2 Published data of δ18O in humans and animals 4.4.5.3 Published modern water values 4.4.5.4 δ18O in precipitation 4.4.5.5 Conversion of δ18O in tooth enamel carbonate into δ18O in water 4.4.6 ‘Locals’ and ‘non-locals’ 4.4.6.1 Results of the data conversion into d18O in water and ‘local’ d18O ranges 4.4.6.1.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.4.6.1.2 Iron Age 4.4.6.2 Potential correlation between d18O results and longitude and latitude 4.4.6.3 Evaluation of the ‘local’ d18O values 4.5 Combined results and discussion of 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O analyses 4.5.1 Eneolithic and Bronze Age 4.5.2 Iron Age 4.6 Discussion of this chapter’s results 4.6.1 Sampling 4.6.1.1 Sample selection and sample size 4.6.1.2 Reference sample material and the definition of the ‘local’ signatures 4.6.1.3 Intra-individual sampling in humans 4.6.2 Identification of outliers 4.6.2.1 ‘Local’ or ‘non-local’? 4.6.2.2 Identification of outliers on an intra-site level 4.6.2.3 Identification of outliers on an intra-regional level 4.6.2.4 Identification of outliers on an inter-regional level 4.6.3 Reconstruction of economic systems 4.6.3.1 Mobility variants 4.6.3.2 Elements of uncertainty 4.6.4 Detection of a possible increase of mobility due to the emergence of draught animals, wagons and climatic changes using 87Sr/86Sr and d18O analyses 4.6.4.1 Site variability 4.6.4.2 Exceptional burials 4.6.5 Mobility in the Iron Age Scythian period 4.6.5.1 Human mobility 4.6.5.2 Evidence for faunal mobility in the Iron Age Scythian period 4.6.6 Isotopic indicators for possible migrations from the steppe area to the west 4.7 Conclusions Chapter 4 5 Case study: Faunal mobility in the context of the Globular Amphora culture 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Theories of faunal mobility 5.3 Stable isotope analysis of faunal mobility 5.4 Archaeological framework 5.4.1 Globular Amphora culture and cattle depositions 5.4.2 Archaeology of Zauschwitz 5.5 Expected isotopic values of Zauschwitz 5.6 Material 5.7 Results and discussion 5.7.1 Strontium isotope analysis 5.7.2 Oxygen isotope analysis 5.7.3 Combination of strontium and oxygen isotope analyses 5.8 Conclusions Chapter 5 6 Palaeodiet 6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 Objectives of this study 6.1.2 Diet of the West Eurasian steppe people in the Eneolithic, the Early and Middle Bronze Age 6.2 Methodological basics 6.2.1 Potential information derived from stable isotope analysis 6.2.2 d13C analysis 6.2.2.1 Basic principles 6.2.2.2 d13C in C3 and C4 plants and their consumers 6.2.2.3 d13C in marine, freshwater and terrestrial diet 6.2.2.4 Trophic level shifts 6.2.3 d15N analysis 6.2.3.1 Basic principles 6.2.3.2 Trophic level effect 6.2.3.3 Terrestrial, freshwater and marine food 6.2.3.4 Climatic effect and water dependency 6.3 Material 6.4 Method 6.5 Results of d13C and d15N analysis 6.5.1 Sample preservation 6.5.2 Results faunal material 6.5.3 Results human material 6.5.3.1 Human bones 6.5.3.2 Results and discussion of combined d13C and d15N analysis of the human bones 6.5.3.3 Human teeth 6.6 Discussion 6.6.1 Discussion of the results of the faunal references compared to further studies 6.6.2 Discussion of the results of the human bones 6.6.2.1 Internal site variation 6.6.2.2 Correlation between d13C and d15N ratios 6.6.2.3 Chronological comparison 6.6.2.4 Variations based on gender and age 6.6.3 Discussion of the results of human teeth 6.6.4 Discussion of possible dietary components 6.6.5 Comparison of the results for human bones to analogous studies 6.6.5.1 North Pontic region 6.6.5.2 Kuban region 6.6.5.3 West Pontic region 6.7 Conclusions Chapter 6 7 Summaries in English, German and Russian 8 Bibliography Appendices Introduction to the Appendices Appendix A I Sites II Samples Appendix B Data 87Sr/86Sr analysis Appendix C Data δ18O analysis Appendix D Data d13C and d15N analysis