Mediterranean polyculture revisited: olive, grape and subsistence strategies at Palaikastro, East Crete, between the Late Neolithic and Late Bronze Age

This paper examines agriculture, farming and dietary resources in east Crete, and re-evaluates the role of grape and olive in its prehistoric economy, these being key in debates on the emergence of social complexity. To do so bioarchaeological, paleoenvironmental and landscape survey data from the Bronze Age town at Palaikastro and its territory are combined. The results indicate a highly compartmentalised landscape, including intensive crop cultivation and extensive animal herding with careful monitoring to maintain productivity. A heightened specialisation in ovicaprine management at Palaikastro and east Crete seems to be delineated. Marine resources were regularly exploited from easily accessible coastal areas. Other activities included viticulture since the Early Minoan period, with the possible involvement of several houses in wine-making. A final important activity in the area was large-scale olive tree management since the Final Neolithic period and through to the Late Bronze Age, that seems to be entangled with ovicaprine herding and grazing. Thus, the demand for olive oil production does not seem to have been the driving force behind the intensification of the tree management, at least initially, but a corollary of its use in other aspects of the local economy

Strontium isotope evidence for human mobility in the Neolithic of northern Greece

Strontium isotope ratios are widely used in archaeology to differentiate between local and non-local populations. Herein, strontium isotope ratios of 36 human tooth enamels from seven archaeological sites spanning the Early to Late Neolithic of northern Greece (7th–5th millennia B.C.E.) were analysed with the aim of providing new information relating to the movement of humans across the region. Local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr signals were established using tooth enamel from 26 domestic animals from the same Neolithic sites. 87Sr/86Sr values of faunal enamel correlate well with predicted strontium isotope ratios of the local geology. This is consistent with animal management occurring at a local level, although at Late Neolithic sites strontium isotope values became more varied, potentially indicating changing herding practices. The strontium isotope analysis of human tooth enamel likewise suggests limited population movement within the Neolithic of northern Greece. Almost all individuals sampled exhibited 87Sr/86Sr values consistent with having spent their early life (during the period of tooth mineralisation) in the local area, although movement could have occurred between isotopically homo- geneous areas. The strontium isotope ratios of only three individuals lay outside of the local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr range and these individuals are interpreted as having spent their early lives in a region with a more radiogenic biologically available 87Sr/86Sr. Mobility patterns determined using Sr isotope analysis supports the current evidence for movement and exchange observed through studies of pottery circulation. Suggesting limited movement in the Early and Middle Neolithic and greater movement in the Late Neolithic

Animal carcass processing, cooking and consumption at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou, northern Greece

The open-air settlement of Revenia-Korinou has yielded the largest Early Neolithic (7th millennium BC) faunal assemblage to date from Greece. The assemblage, recovered from numerous pits, is heavily dominated by domestic sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Here we focus on the evidence for butchery and consumption of animals, to explore how carcass products were cooked (in the absence of cooking pots) and what if any role they played in commensal politics. Evidence for dismembering and filleting is sparse, implying butchery of domestic animal carcasses into large segments (including more or less complete limbs) for cooking, apparently in ovens or pits rather than on open fires. Subsequently limb bones were intensively smashed to extract marrow and probably grease, perhaps by boiling in organic containers. Dismembering, filleting and marrow extraction were most intensive for cattle, but bone grease was more systematically exploited in the case of sheep/goats, implying differences between taxa in contexts of consumption. Significant differences between pits in taxonomic composition and the incidence of gnawing and burning suggest that each represents short-term and/or localized discard, perhaps by a small residential group. Within individual pits, matching unfused diaphyses and epiphyses and joins between fragments broken in antiquity confirm rapid burial, but bones separated by dismembering seem to have been dispersed across the settlement before discard. The distribution of carcass products, both cooked and uncooked, played a role in shaping relationships between small residential units and the wider community at Early Neolithic Revenia-Korinou

Exploring Diversity in Neolithic Agropastoral Management in Mainland Greece Using Stable Isotope Analysis

International audienceNew stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic values of charred plant and bone collagen remains from 6th mill. BCE Halai, central Greece, together with datasets from 6th mill. BCE Kouphovouno, southern Greece, and later 6th/early 5th mill. BCE Makriyalos, northern Greece, demonstrate how early farming communities in mainland Greece adapted mixed farming strategies to distinct local environmental and cultural settings. Intra-site similarities or differences in δ13C and δ15N values of distinct crop species, along with the intra-species variabilities in stable isotopic values, are used to assess the cultivation choices that farmers at the three sites made to fulfill distinct economic goals. At Halai, farmers cultivated multiple crops under variable soil conditions, a strategy likely geared towards minimizing overall risk in a relatively arid coastal setting. At better-watered Kouphovouno, by contrast, farmers practiced strategic manuring to maximize the yield of free-threshing wheat, likely grown exclusively for human consumption and rotated with nitrogen-fixing pulses. At Makriyalos, the limited sample size of cereal remains suggests a lack of intensive manuring, in contrast to the two other sites. Assessment of which crops may have been consumed by livestock sheds further light on symbiotic relationships between crop cultivation and animal husbandry