Under the supervision of Dr. Richard Yerkes, Julia Giblin will analyze stable isotopes in skeletal material from prehistoric populations in Central Europe to examine proposed changes in subsistence and mobility from the Neolithic to the Copper Age. The Neolithic and Copper Age were pivotal periods in European prehistory when agricultural groups dispersed and abandoned the large villages and tells that they had inhabited for centuries and established new lifeways. From the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain (4,500 cal. BC) a transformation in social organization, subsistence strategy and mobility has been inferred from the archaeological record. This transition is characterized by material changes in settlements, subsistence, cultural assemblages, mortuary customs, and trade networks. Geochemical applications in anthropology, such as stable isotope analysis, provide new ways to directly and independently test patterns of prehistoric human behavior detected in the archaeological record. The proposed research will test two specific hypotheses: (1) mobility increased from the Neolithic to the Copper Age, and (2) diet became more focused on domesticated plants and animals. Stable strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in human and animal dental enamel will be used to test the first hypothesis, and the abundance of stable carbon (ä13C) and nitrogen (ä15N) isotopes in human and animal bone will be used to test the second. Intellectually, this project advances our theoretical understanding of subsistence strategy, mobility and social organization during a critical period in human history when "modern" European culture emerged from its Neolithic roots. Neolithic and Copper Age tribes on the Great Hungarian Plain are thought to have shifted from sedentary, nucleated, and socially integrated farming to dispersed, mobile, and interactive agropastoralism. This transition was one episode in a cyclical pattern of integration and interaction or "tribal cycling" that began with the migration of Early Neolithic tribal societies onto the Plain and ended with the emergence of ranked societies during the Bronze Age. The proposed analysis of changes in mobility and subsistence during this transition is significant because it will examine and evaluate these cycles of integration and interaction and evaluate some of the ecological, economic, and sociopolitical models that have been proposed to explain the changes.
More broadly, this research promotes interdisciplinary and international collaborations that contribute to the holistic and integrative nature of anthropological research. It is an interdisciplinary, collaborative and synergistic endeavor between anthropologists, biologists, zoologists, geologists, chemists, and geographers at several universities and museums in Hungary and the USA. The database of isotope values generated from this project will be made available to the scientific community via a website, timely publication through peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes in the USA and Hungary, and presentations at meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, the American Association of Physical Anthropology, the European Association of Archaeologists and at Hungarian universities, museums and archaeological sites. These activities will engage the public in local research projects and will also provide opportunities for undergraduate anthropology students to get training in biogeochemical techniques used for analyzing archaeological samples.
