Thomas Doppler

High-resolution isotopic evidence of specialised cattle herding in the European Neolithic

Reconstructing stock herding strategies and land use is key to comprehending past human social organization and economy. We present laser-ablation strontium and carbon isotope data from 25 cattle (Bos taurus) to reconstruct mobility and infer herding management at the Swiss lakeside settlement of Arbon Bleiche 3, occupied for only 15 years (3384–3370 BC). Our results reveal three distinct isotopic patterns that likely reflect different herding strategies: 1) localized cattle herding, 2) seasonal movement, and 3) herding away from the site year-round. Different strategies of herding are not uniformly represented in various areas of the settlement, which indicates specialist modes of cattle management. The pressure on local fodder capacities and the need for alternative herding regimes must have involved diverse access to grazing resources. Consequently, the increasing importance of cattle in the local landscape was likely to have contributed to the progress of socio-economic differentiation in early agricultural societies in Europe.

The Life and Times of the House: Multi-Scalar Perspectives on Settlement from the Neolithic of the Northern Alpine Foreland

The settlement record of the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland is used to address the question of what difference having high-resolution chronology — in this case principally provided by dendrochronology — makes to the kinds of narrative we seek to write about the Neolithic. In a search for detailed histories, three kinds of scale are examined. The longer-term development of cultural patterns and boundaries is found to correlate very imprecisely with the character and architecture of settlements. Individual houses and settlements were generally short-lived, suggesting considerable fluidity in social relations at the local level. Greater continuity can be found in the landscape, perhaps involving more than individual communities. We argue that the particular history of the northern Alpine foreland is best understood by interweaving multiple temporal scales, an approach that will need to be extended to other case studies.

The Beginnings of Alpine Transhumance? Isotopic Insights into Neolithic Cattle Herding

*Correspondence: Dr. C. Gerling, E-mail: claudia.gerling@unibas.ch. aDepartment of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Spalenring 145, CH-4055 Basel; bDepartment of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK; cCurt-Engelhorn Centre Archaeometry, D6,3, D-68159 Mannheim; dDepartment of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK; eDepartment of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 30, CH-4056 Basel