Researchers seek to understand how humans and animals adapt to changing environmental conditions and the roles they play in creating new environments. Archaeology is particularly well suited to provide relevant information on long-term environmental change and its effects on humans because it can identify the interplay between humans, animals, and landscapes over extended periods of time. Within this context this project will characterize the cultural, biological, and ecological impacts of the introduction of domesticated animals into Europe. The effects of small-scale introductions of domestic animals (sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs) into biodiverse regions are not well studied. This project focuses on the first directed and intentional animal introductions into the Balkans, a European Union biodiversity hotspot, ca. 8,000 years ago. By studying the effects of region's earliest farmers on local plant and animal communities, in particular their domestic animal management strategies, the investigators will establish baseline data on the environmental effects of deliberate mammal introductions as a comparative dataset for other regions. The results will help guide modern conservation efforts in regions that have witnessed decades, centuries, or millennia of herding activity, and will contribute relevant information to understanding the environmental and cultural impacts of domesticated animals in non-industrialized societies. This project will train undergraduate and graduate students in generating and using archaeological data to address important ecological questions and will expand the research capacities of multiple institutions.
The ecological and cultural underpinnings of the introduction of domesticated animals to Europe ca. 8000 years ago are still poorly understood. This project focuses on biological and cultural markers of domestic animal management (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs) by studying animal bones, pottery, soil, and botanical (seeds and wood charcoal) samples from archaeological sites on the central Dalmatian coast of Croatia as a case study for this research. Data generated through this research include stable isotopic analyses, Bayesian radiocarbon chronologies, functional morphology, ceramic residue analyses, botanical studies, and animal population dynamics, and will provide multiple lines of evidence to characterize animal management practices during this period. Results will identify the role of milk in early farming; the antiquity of historically important patterns of animal transhumance and environmental degradation; and the relative fragility or resilience of local ecosystems. Multiple lines of evidence will characterize early European domesticated animal use and further our understanding of human-animal relationships and their impacts on local ecosystems in general. Results will be published in international publications and through lectures, presentations, and exhibits to public audiences in the US and Croatia.
