Disentangling the effect of farming practice and aridity on crop stable isotope values: a present-day model from Morocco and its application to early farming sites in the eastern Mediterranean

Agriculture has played a pivotal role in shaping landscapes, soils and vegetation. Developing a better understanding of early farming practices can contribute to wider questions regarding the long-term impact of farming and its nature in comparison with present-day traditional agrosystems. In this study we determine stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of barley grains from a series of present-day traditionally managed farming plots in Morocco, capturing a range of annual rainfall and farming practices. This allows a framework to be developed to refine current isotopic approaches used to infer manuring intensity and crop water status in (semi-)arid regions. This method has been applied to charred crop remains from two early farming sites in the eastern Mediterranean: Abu Hureyra and ‘Ain Ghazal. In this way, our study enhances knowledge of agricultural practice in the past, adding to understanding of how people have shaped and adapted to their environment over thousands of years

Ancient DNA identification of domestic animals used for leather objects in Central Asia during the Bronze Age

The arid climate of many regions within Central Asia often leads to excellent archaeological preservation, especially in sealed funerary contexts, allowing for ancient DNA analyses. While geneticists have looked at human remains, clothes, tools, and other burial objects are often neglected. In this paper, we present the results of an ancient DNA study on Bronze Age leather objects excavated from tombs of the Wupu cemetery in the Hami Oasis and Yanghai cemetery in the Turpan Oasis, both in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. In addition to species identification of goat (Capra aegagrus/hircus), sheep (Ovis orientalis/aries), and cattle (Bos primigenius/taurus), mitochondrial haplogroups were determined for several samples. Our results show that Bronze Age domesticated goats and sheep from the Hami and Turpan oases possessed identical or closely related haplotypes to modern domestic animals of this area. The absence of leather produced from wild animals emphasizes the importance of animal husbandry in the cultures of Wupu and Yanghai

Kaukasus. Subsistenzwirtschaft und Umweltnutzung in Siedlungen des 6. Jt. v. Chr.

Bio-archaeological studies on animal and plant remains from Neolithic sites in the Southern Caucasus region dating to the 6th millennium BC could prove that the cultivation of crops (wheat, barley, lentil) and breeding of domestic animals like cattle, sheep, goats and pigs provided a sufficient and stable subsistence basis for the settlement’s inhabitants. Wild plants and wild animals were used only in a low extent for subsistence purposes. First aDNA studies show a high variability in mitochondrial haplotypes in sheep and pigs that might be indicative for a close proximity to the areas of primary domestication in Upper Mesopotamia. There is no evidence of local domestication for none of the domestic animals, i.e. livestock animals were introduced to the Southern Caucasus in the course of neolithization

Plant exploitation and environments in the Southern Caucasus, from Neolithic to Early Bronze Age

International audienc

Results of the archaeobotanical study of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age sites in Azerbaijan, southern Caucasus

International audienc

Vegetation and plant exploitation in southern Caucasus

International audienc