Reconstructing subsistence practices: taphonomic constraints and the interpretation of wild plant remains at aceramic Neolithic Chogha Golan,Iran

In this paper we discuss the plant-based subsistence economy during the formation of archaeological horizons (AH) II and I at the aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan, Iran. The deposits date to between 9,800 and 9,600 cal bp. In order to reconstruct subsistence practices and their development reliably, we conducted a taphonomic analysis to identify factors that influenced the composition of the archaeobotanical assemblage. The flotation samples derive from two excavation areas in the centre of the tell, the deep sounding and area A. Using correspondence analysis, we link the biased composition of the plant remains from AH I to their relatively poor preservation. Two different sampling strategies applied in excavation area A also affected the composition of the samples. In contrast, we did not find compositional differences among the samples from AH II of both excavation areas. Our results emphasize the need for taphonomic analyses prior to interpreting the taxonomic composition of charred archaeobotanical assemblages. Considering these results, we discuss the subsistence economy of Chogha Golan. Domestic emmer wheat was cultivated from AH II onwards. Wild barley, Aegilops sp., lentils, peas and various vetches may have been cultivated as well. This spectrum of typical Neolithic food plants was supplemented by a high diversity of other potential wild food resources, including medium and small-seeded grasses, Pistacia, Bolboschoenus glaucus, Malva and Brassicaceae. A compilation of ethnobotanical data, mainly from the Near and Middle East, represents the basis for assessing the potential uses of the wild plants.     

通过稳定同位素分析云南大阴洞遗址先民的生业经济方式

农业的起源和传播是人类历史上最重要的变革之一。本文通过对云南省文山州广南县大阴洞遗址出土的17例人骨标本的C、N稳定同位素分析,探索新石器时代晚期至青铜时代,滇东南地区先民的食物结构和生业经济。结果显示,大阴洞遗址居民的δ¹³C值范围为-20.2‰ ~ -17.5‰,主要以C₃类食物为主;δ¹⁵N值范围为9.2‰ ~ 10.7‰,所处的营养级别较高;两性之间存在食谱差异,大部分男性比女性摄入更多的动物蛋白。结合相关考古发现,大阴洞遗址居民可能主要经营稻作农业,兼营狩猎;对动物资源的利用可能具有多样性,并通过采集、渔猎及家畜饲养补充食物来源。考虑到云南作为农业向中南半岛传播的重要通道,进一步对云南地区新石器-青铜时代先民的生业策略选择的梳理发现,云南地区新石器时代不同区域的人群有不同的农业经营策略。到青铜时代,随着小麦的传入,农业经济的选择更为多元化,动物资源的获取技术也更加成熟多样。不同的农业策略选择除了受到自然条件的影响,也是与相邻地区文化互动的结果。     

Global Integration and Subsistence Insecurity

Global integration heightens the cyclical crises of capitalism by incorporating the subsistence sectors of advanced and peripheral economies. World trends show a contraction in industrial production; the rise of unemployment, an increase in military spending and decline in social welfare, a reversal of capital flows from developing countries to developed economies, and a worldwide drop in real wages. The impact of these trends on communities in Mexico, Bolivia, and the United States where the author has done fieldwork is assessed in relation to current economic crises and the social movements that respond to them. The author shows that collective action to oppose the devastating effect on subsistence is more prevalent in marginal economies that are just beginning to experience the effect of capital penetration than in the industrial wastelands of developed countries. Theories of the crisis neglect those arenas where resistance and protest are most active: the urban barrios struggling for food and water, the rural laborers forced off of their land base, and the hunters and cultivators of the jungle. Luxemburg's thesis asserting the importance of the subsistence sector in capital accumulation acquires increasing significance at a time when those economies are threatened with extinction. Expanding the notion of subsistence production to include nonwage work allows us to theorize the significance of social reproduction in crisis conditions.     

Wild plant seed storage at Neolithic Çatalhöyük East,Turkey

Full analysis of eight seed samples collected in the 1960's excavations at Neolithic Çatalhöyük East, Turkey, is presented. Detailed investigation of the composition and context of the samples suggests that the Neolithic population collected, processed and stored seeds from Capsella sp. and Descurainia sp. (wild crucifers) for food use. In addition seeds of Vicia/Lathyrus sp. (wild vetch), Helianthemum spp. and Taeniatherum caput-medusae mixed with Eremopyrum type (grasses) were also found, some of which may have been used for food or other purposes. The analysis demonstrates that wild seed exploitation was a regular part of subsistence practice alongside the economic staple of crop production, and again demonstrates how diverse plant use practices were at the site.     

Crop growing and gathering in the northern German Neolithic: a review supplemented by new results

New archaeobotanical results from 15 Neolithic sites in northern Germany are presented in a review of the Neolithic plant economy in northern and north-western Europe. Available archaeobotanical data from north-western Europe are evaluated and compared with our new results. In the whole region, barley and emmer were the main crops. Regional and diachronic differences are observed in the cultivation of einkorn, spelt and naked wheat. For oil plants and pulses only rare information from macro remains is available, as we mainly deal with charred material. It is noticeable that gathered plants played an important role in the Funnel Beaker economy. Plant choice, especially the relevance of cultivated versus gathered plants is discussed, based on new and existing data. Based on a structural comparison of charred plant assemblages from domestic sites and tombs, we develop a research hypothesis that settlement finds provide insight into production and consumption of food from crops, while tombs mainly yield evidence of plants gathered in the wild or in semi-wild areas in the vicinity of former settlements. Therefore, we suggest a model of different purposes and meanings of plants, depending on whether primarily an economic or a social/ritual sphere is regarded. But, for all evaluations and interpretations, it is essential to consider the taphonomic processes and conditions. Therefore, further research is necessary to verify our hypothesis, which derives from first insights into new material.     

Unravelling the complexity of domestication: a case study using morphometrics and ancient DNA analyses of archaeological pigs from Romania

Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancient DNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological (likely) domestic pigs. These large ‘domestic shape’ specimens were present from the outset of the Romanian Neolithic (6100–5500 cal BC) through to later prehistory, suggesting a long history of admixture between introduced domestic pigs and local wild boar. Finally, we confirmed a turnover in mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later prehistory.     

城子崖遗址植硅体反映的生业经济模式

龙山文化是中国史前社会形态演进的关键阶段,亦是农业强化生产的关键时期。城子崖遗址是鲁北平原史前区域中心城址,其生业经济研究有助于理解该地区社会复杂化及文明进程。本文对城子崖遗址龙山时期不同遗迹单位的15份土样进行了系统的植硅体分析,尝试探讨了该遗址龙山文化时期的社会发展和生业经济水平、农作物生产和加工方式、野生植物资源利用情况以及各遗迹堆积及其所反映的人类行为活动信息。结果显示,该遗址龙山文化时期已形成粟、黍、稻、小麦、稗(可能)的农作物组合方式;同时,广泛采集利用聚落周边的自然植物资源,是农业与采集业并存发展的生业经济模式。先民在作物栽培中进行了锄草、灌溉等较为精细的管理,其中,黍较粟更具耐旱抗病特性,加上田间管理需求较低而被优先选择栽培。先民在收获作物时,采用类似割穗、掐穗等方法以减少作物茎秆及杂草混入,随后在户外进行小规模地脱壳、扬场工作。此外,根据灰坑中植硅体的组合特征可将其分为生活垃圾、谷物加工、蓄水淘米三个类型,水井和墓葬内的植硅体则分别与生活环境和丧葬环节等信息相关。     

Mobility and subsistence economy: a diachronic comparison between two groups settled in the same geographical area (Liguria, Italy)

The purpose of this article is to investigate temporal shifts in skeletal robusticity to infer behavioral changes in two populations (Neolithic, NEOL and Medieval, MED) settled in the same geographic area but involved in different subsistence economies (pastoralism and coastal resources exploitation). This comparison allows us to test the hypothesis that occupational stress and mobility in the same environment produce predictable changes in the robusticity of both upper and lower limbs. Results show a lower degree of humeral robusticity and a similar degree of humeral asymmetry in the two sexes in the MED population. These results are consistent with the relatively less stressful subsistence economy documented in the MED population relative to that of the NEOL. Lower limb results suggest that femoral robusticity does not correlate directly with the level of logistical mobility, but is instead due to the summation of several diverse factors that place biomechanical loads on the hindlimb, particularly unevenness of the terrain. However, female femoral gracility seems to indicate that below a certain "threshold" of mobility, i.e., movement over the natural terrain, terrain conformation is no longer the main contributing factor to femoral robusticity. The femoral shape index I(x)/I(y) declines through time, particularly in males. This agrees with the expected mobility of the samples based on archaeological and historical data, providing further evidence on the reliability of this index in inferring terrestrial mobility.     

Life Without Pigs: Recent Subsistence Changes Among the Irakia Awa, Papua New Guinea

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Irakia Awa commenced changing their basic subsistence adaptation. This included altering gardening practices, changing basic food consumption patterns, and most importantly, eliminating the production of domestic pigs. These changes were undertaken as part of an effort to improve the life experience of local residents and usher in a new plan of village improvement. The plan promoted the disintensification of subsistence production and increased involvement in cash-earning and recreational pursuits, as well as Christianity. If successful, the promoters of the plan hope that the village will become a more attractive place to live, migrants living away will return home to help revitalize the community, and Irakia will flourish in the new cash-oriented modern economy.     

Early Neolithic agriculture (2700–2000 <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">bc</Emphasis>) and Kushan period developments (<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">ad</Emphasis> 100–300): macrobotanical evidence from Kanispur in Kashmir,India

Here we report the results of an archaeobotanical study carried out on Ceramic Neolithic (2700–2000 bc) and Kushan period (ad 100–300) deposits at Kanispur, Kashmir, northern India. Botanical evidence from the Ceramic Neolithic phase reflects a nascent agriculture based on cold-tolerant crops (barley, wheats, lentil, field pea and grass pea) related to farming patterns of adjacent cultures and possibly evidence for the earliest cultivation in the valley. The Kushan period is characterized by a double-cropping pattern, suggesting a change in agricultural practices associated with a population recovery following a post-Neolithic decline. Finds of Juglans regia, and Prunus cf. amygdalus shells in ceramic Neolithic levels, and Vitis cf. vinifera, Emblica officinalis and Ziziphus cf. nummularia in addition to J. regia, and P. cf. amygdalus during Kushan times suggest that horticulture and foraging played an important role in the diet of the occupants. The present dataset provides new absolute dates for the subsistence economy of the Ceramic Neolithic population in the Kashmir Valley. We also present the oldest directly dated wheat and barley in Kashmir.     

Crop husbandry activities and wild plant gathering,use and consumption at the EPPNB Tell Qarassa North (south Syria)

The Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (EPPNB) in southwest Asia is a fundamental period in research on the origins of domesticated plants. However, there are few archaeobotanical data with which to characterise the plant-based subsistence and crop husbandry activities during this time, which hinders the understanding of the factors that triggered the appearance of plant domestication. In this paper, analyses of non-woody plant macro-remains provide new insights into subsistence activities such as crop cultivation (husbandry activities and storage) and plant use (wild plant gathering and food preparation) during the EPPNB at Tell Qarassa North (south Syria). We make comparisons between Tell Qarassa North and the evidence at earlier and later periods as to how plants were used, and highlight similarities and differences in the practices attested, as well as describing some of the consequences that these plant-related activities may have had in terms of labour and social organization during EPPNB.     

Resource Use in Small Island States

Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago are small open, high‐income island economies with very specific resource‐use patterns. This article presents a material flow analysis (MFA) for the two countries covering a time period of nearly five decades. Both countries have a narrow domestic resource base, their economy being largely based on the exploitation of one or two key resources for export production. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, the physical economy is dominated by oil and natural gas extraction and petrochemical industries, whereas Iceland's economy for centuries has been based on fisheries. More recently, abundant hydropower and geothermal heat were the basis for the establishment of large export‐oriented metal processing industries, which fully depend on imported raw materials and make use of domestic renewable electricity. Both countries are highly dependent on these natural resources and vulnerable to overexploitation and price developments. We show how the export‐oriented industries lead to high and growing levels of per capita material and energy use and carbon dioxide emissions resulting from large amounts of processing wastes and energy consumption in production processes. The example of small open economies with an industrial production system focused on few, but abundant, key resources and of comparatively low complexity provides interesting insights of how resource endowment paired with availability or absence of infrastructure and specific institutional arrangements drives domestic resource‐use patterns. This also contributes to a better understanding and interpretation of MFA indicators, such as domestic material consumption.     

Can Wild Ungulate Carcasses Provide Enough Biomass to Maintain Avian Scavenger Populations? An Empirical Assessment Using a Bio-Inspired Computational Model

Background

The reduction in the amount of food available for European avian scavengers as a consequence of restrictive public health policies is a concern for managers and conservationists. Since 2002, the application of several sanitary regulations has limited the availability of feeding resources provided by domestic carcasses, but theoretical studies assessing whether the availability of food resources provided by wild ungulates are enough to cover energetic requirements are lacking.

Methodology/Findings

We assessed food provided by a wild ungulate population in two areas of NE Spain inhabited by three vulture species and developed a P System computational model to assess the effects of the carrion resources provided on their population dynamics. We compared the real population trend with to a hypothetical scenario in which only food provided by wild ungulates was available. Simulation testing of the model suggests that wild ungulates constitute an important food resource in the Pyrenees and the vulture population inhabiting this area could grow if only the food provided by wild ungulates would be available. On the contrary, in the Pre-Pyrenees there is insufficient food to cover the energy requirements of avian scavenger guilds, declining sharply if biomass from domestic animals would not be available.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results suggest that public health legislation can modify scavenger population trends if a large number of domestic ungulate carcasses disappear from the mountains. In this case, food provided by wild ungulates could be not enough and supplementary feeding could be necessary if other alternative food resources are not available (i.e. the reintroduction of wild ungulates), preferably in European Mediterranean scenarios sharing similar and socio-economic conditions where there are low densities of wild ungulates. Managers should anticipate the conservation actions required by assessing food availability and the possible scenarios in order to make the most suitable decisions.     

Agroterrorism in the U.S.: key security challenge for the 21st century

Agriculture is one of the easiest sectors of the U.S. economy to disrupt, and its disruption could have catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and world economies. Agriculture in the U.S. accounts for 13% of the current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides employment for 15% of the population. It produces high-quality, cheap, plentiful food for domestic consumption and accounts for more than $50 billion in exports. The likelihood of terrorist acts interrupting the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products is high: A number of different possible plant or animal pathogens could cause harm or loss of production, and even an act of agroterrorism that did not result in the destruction of foodstuffs or interruptions in the food supply could have a psychological impact. A number of recent unintentional events and epidemics have prompted the U.S. and other countries to provide resources to counteract contagious diseases and contain their impact, including increased funding to federal agencies that are responsible for protecting domestic agriculture. This article presents recommendations to protect agriculture, including changing the way agriculture is viewed on the federal level and increasing the resources to protect agriculture from terrorist attack.     

Development policy,forests, and peasant farms: Reflections on Huastec-managed forests’ contributions to commercial production and resource conservation

The Huastec Indians of northeastern Mexico manage their forests in an indigenous system that integrates commercial and subsistence production. Elements of primary and secondary forest coexist with introduced species in this diverse silvicultural structure which complements the swidden and permanent agriculture fields of the Huastec farmstead. The forest’s direct production of the food, timber, and fuel resources discussed here buffers the Huastec peasant family against market fluctuations and the failed harvest of a single crop. The Huastec system of forest management offers an alternative pattern to the agroforestry and plantation schemes now being suggested for development in the tropics. It is an alternative that provides protection for wild genetic resources while it contributes to the combination of commercial and subsistence agriculture so important for the successful modernization of peasant agriculture. The documentation of this system demonstrates that ethnobotanists and economic botanists have an important but unrealized role to play in the protection of biotic resources and in the development of sustained yield agroecosystems for peasants. The contributions of ethnobotanists are particularly valuable because they can find where and why useful wild species persist in agroecosystems. A greater effort to direct the attentions of policy makers to the value of ethnobotanical knowledge is needed.     

Neolithic dairy farming at the extreme of agriculture in northern Europe

The conventional ‘Neolithic package’ comprised animals and plants originally domesticated in the Near East. As farming spread on a generally northwest trajectory across Europe, early pastoralists would have been faced with the challenge of making farming viable in regions in which the organisms were poorly adapted to providing optimal yields or even surviving. Hence, it has long been debated whether Neolithic economies were ever established at the modern limits of agriculture. Here, we examine food residues in pottery, testing a hypothesis that Neolithic farming was practiced beyond the 60th parallel north. Our findings, based on diagnostic biomarker lipids and δ¹³C values of preserved fatty acids, reveal a transition at ca 2500 BC from the exploitation of aquatic organisms to processing of ruminant products, specifically milk, confirming farming was practiced at high latitudes. Combining this with genetic, environmental and archaeological information, we demonstrate the origins of dairying probably accompanied an incoming, genetically distinct, population successfully establishing this new subsistence ‘package’.     

10,000 year history of plant use at Bosumpra Cave,Ghana

Investigations of hunter-gatherer subsistence, early food production, and the development of agroforestry systems during the Later Stone Age (LSA) of West Africa have proven challenging because of limited recovery and analysis of archaeological evidence relating directly to subsistence. This paper examines changes in the use of plant resources over a 10,000 year period at Bosumpra Cave, southern Ghana. Large quantities of recovered Canarium schweinfurthii (incense tree) and Elaeis guineensis (oil palm) endocarp preserved at the site allow for the assessment of previous observations about changes in the relative importance of tree fruit resources over time. Results point to the possibility that C. schweinfurthii was a managed resource and may be useful as a marker of forager subsistence in tropical forest regions. The exploitation of C. schweinfurthii persisted in the early and middle Holocene, but was eventually overshadowed in the late Holocene by Kintampo food-producing economies based on Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet), Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) and E. guineensis. The Bosumpra deposits also yielded domesticated pearl millet and cowpea, allowing for the comparison of LSA hunter-gatherer and early food producer subsistence practices and cultural interactions in southern Ghana.     

Stable isotopes and dietary adaptations in humans and animals at pre-pottery Neolithic Nevalli Cori, southeast Anatolia

Human and animal bones from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Nevali Cori (southeast Anatolia) were analyzed with regard to stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen, and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in bone carbonate. The reconstruction of the vertebrate food web at this site revealed that humans may have faced difficulties with meat procurement, since their stable-isotope ratios reflect a largely herbivorous diet. This is in contrast with the preceding Pre-Pottery Neolithic A contexts and late Neolithic sites in the Fertile Crescent, where humans are located at the top of the food chain. Conceivably, Nevali Cori represents a community in the transition from a hunting and gathering subsistence to an economy with agriculture and animal husbandry, since domesticated einkorn and sheep, pigs, and probably also goats are in evidence at the site. In the second half of the 9th millennium calibrated (cal.) BC, however, the contribution of stock on the hoof to the human diet still seems modest. Animals kept under cultural control obviously had a dietary spectrum different from their free-ranging relatives. We conclude that these animals had been deliberately nourished by their owners, whereby the overall low delta(15)N-signatures in both humans and livestock might result from the consumption of protein-rich pulses.     

Animal resources and subsistence strategies

Several faunal assemblages excavated in deposits of different antiquity (from Lower Paleolithic to Bronze Age), located in Northern, Central and Southern Italy, were studied from the archeozoological and taphonomic point of view. Data obtained by different Authors allow reconstruction of subsistence strategies adopted by prehistoric humans in these areas and through time, in particular as far as the exploitation of animal resources is concerned. The following assemblages were considered: Isernia La Pineta (Molise; Lower Paleolithic), Grotta Breuil (Latium; Middle Paleolithic), Grotta della Ghiacciaia (Verona; Middle Paleolithic), Riparo di Fumane and Riparo Tagliente (Verona; Middle and Upper Paleolithic), Riparo Mochi (Liguria; Upper Paleolithic), Grotta della Continenza (L'Aquila; Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic), Grotta dell'Edera (Trieste; Mesolithic and Neolithic), Grotta della Cala at Marina di Camerota (Salerno; Eneolithic), Contraguda (Sassari; Neolithic), Castellaro Lagusello (Mantova; Bronze Age). Exploitation of the vegetal resources has been analyzed in the Neolithic sites of Colle Santo Stefano (Fucino), Settefonti (L'Aquila) and Catignano (Pescara).     

The evolution of daily food sharing: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis

Some human subsistence economies are characterized by extensive daily food sharing networks, which may buffer the risk of shortfalls and facilitate cooperative production and divisions of labor among households. Comparative studies of human food sharing can assess the generalizability of this theory across time, space, and diverse lifeways. Here we test several predictions about daily sharing norms–which presumably reflect realized cooperative behavior–in a globally representative sample of nonindustrial societies (the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample), while controlling for multiple sources of autocorrelation among societies using Bayesian multilevel models. Consistent with a risk-buffering function, we find that sharing is less likely in societies with alternative means of smoothing production and consumption such as animal husbandry, food storage, and external trade. Further, food sharing was tightly linked to labor sharing, indicating gains to cooperative production and perhaps divisions of labor. We found a small phylogenetic signal for food sharing (captured by a supertree of human populations based on genetic and linguistic data) that was mediated by food storage and social stratification. Food sharing norms reliably emerge as part of cooperative economies across time and space but are culled by innovations that facilitate self-reliant production.