Climatic or dietary change? Stable isotope analysis of Neolithic–Bronze Age populations from the Upper Ob and Tobol River basins

Abstract

The steppe and the forest-steppe zones of Siberia represent an environmental belt that links the outskirts of western Asia and Eastern Europe. This corridor of northern regions of steppe and forest steppe has contributed towards the dispersal of animal and crop species, metals, precious stones, as well as new technologies across Eurasia in prehistory (Kuzʹmina, 2008; Koryakova and Epimakhov, 2007). Dietary changes within the populations inhabiting the southwest Siberia and northern Kazakhstan in prehistory indicate changes in the economy, at the same time marking the beginnings of East-West interaction across northern Eurasia. Past palaeodietary research using stable isotope analysis have mainly focussed on pastoral cattle breeding populations of the Bronze Age period. The introduction of domestic animal species of the near Eastern origin, such as sheep and goats, dramatically changed the lives of the local population. It is crucial, however, to access the diets of humans and animals from earlier periods (Neolithic/Chalcolithic) in order to understand the timing and nature of dietary change during the Bronze Age of southwest Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. It has been implied from previous research suggesting that elevated δ13C or δ15N values in animals and subsequently in humans, for example, could be a result of climatic rather than dietary change. In this paper we discuss the timing of pastoralism in the southern zones of western Siberia (Upper Ob River) and northern Kazakhstan (Tobol River basin) by presenting the stable isotope results of the Neolithic to Bronze Age humans and fauna. This data, combined with the AMS radiocarbon dating results, allows us to detect human dietary change through time http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/holocene HOLOCENE

Intensification in pastoralist cereal use coincides with the expansion of trans-regional networks in the Eurasian Steppe

“…No isotopic evidence for cereal consumption is visible in the remains of pastoralists inhabiting SE Kazakhstan in the early second millennium, although sample sizes are small (Fig. 3, LBA1) (Sensu 55 ). By the mid-second millennium cal BC, the combination of a 2.3‰ increase on average in LBA2 human carbon isotope values and loss of a positive linear relationship between carbon and nitrogen isotope values in humans and livestock indicates that millet was incorporated into pastoralist diets at this time.…”

Paleodietary Patterns of the Cherepakha 13 Site Population (Early Iron Age) in Primorye (Maritime) Province, Russian Far East, based on Stable Isotope Analysis

“…In the Altai Mountains and the Minusinsk Depression of southern Siberia, the terrestrial-based diet gives us the δ 13 C values of ca. –19‰ (Svyatko et al 2013, 2017a, 2017b; Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2015, 2016). Populations of the Late Bronze Age, Late Iron Age, and the Middle Ages from the Minusinsk Basin and southern Kazakhstan, with a mixed diet consisting of terrestrial animals, C 3 plants, and millet, have higher δ 13 C values of ca.…”

Archaeobotanical investigations at the earliest horse herder site of Botai in Kazakhstan

“…The Stipa grass, goosefoot, and amaranth species could have well constituted a source of starch for human consumption. Steppe regions and in the Altai (east from Botai), practised cattle breeding at least in the later stages of the Botai culture's existence (Anthony 2007;Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2016). However, despite a few domestic horses, which they possessed for hunting wild horses (the Botai model was similar to reindeer hunter societies further north in Siberia that use reindeer husbandry to control the resource better, without the full set of implications for reindeer use), the Botai inhabitants did not have any domesticated animals of southwest origin, such as sheep, goat, or cattle (Outram et al 2009).…”