Of cattle and feasts: multi-isotope investigation of animal husbandry and communal feasting at Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece
2018
The aim of this study is to investigate livestock husbandry and its relationship to the mobilization
of domestic animals for slaughter at large communal feasting events, in Late Neolithic
Makriyalos, northern Greece. A multi-isotope approach is built that integrates analysis of:
1. δ13C and δ15N values of human and animal bone collagen for understanding long-term dietary
behavior,
2. Incremental δ13C and δ18O values of domestic animal tooth enamel carbonate for assessing
seasonal patterns in grazing habits and mobility, and
3. 87Sr/86Sr ratios of cattle tooth enamel for examining the possibility that some of the animals
consumed at the site were born outside the local environment.
The findings indicate that cattle had isotopically more variable diets than sheep, which
may reflect grazing over a wider catchment area in the local landscape. Cattle products did
not make a significant contribution to the long-term dietary protein intake of the humans,
which may indicate that they were primarily consumed during episodic feasting events.
There is no indication that pasturing of livestock was pre-determined by their eventual context
of slaughter (i.e. large-scale feasting vs. more routine consumption events). Two nonlocal
cattle identified among those deposited in a feasting context may have been brought to
the site as contributions to these feasts. The evidence presented provides a more detailed
insight into local land use and into the role of livestock and feasting in forging social relationships
within the regional human population.
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