Close management of sheep in ancient Central Asia: evidence for foddering, transhumance, and extended lambing seasons during the Bronze and Iron Ages

Abstract

Pastoralism in Central Asia directed the utilization of natural resources, yet information on livestock management strategies remain scarce. Carbon (δ 13 C) and oxygen (δ 18 O) isotope analyses of domesticated sheep teeth are used to identify animal management strategies. Sheep from Kent exhibit an inverserelationship where low δ 18 O values coincide with high δ 13 C values, consistent with the foddering of caprines in the winter for this location which occursalongside evidence for an extended lambing season. At the high altitude encampment of Turgen, Bronze Age sheep exhibit low δ 18 O values that coincide withhigh δ 13 C values, suggesting that livestock were moved to low altitude pastures in the winter months. Iron Age sheep sequences also have an inverserelationship, where low δ 18 O values coincide with high δ 13 C values, yet high δ 13 C values in the winter suggest that livestock were foddered. Our findingsindicate variation in livestock management strategies with distinct adaptations to local ecologies.

An Imagined Past?

“…Further developing this model, at the nearby site of Aigyrzhal-2, relatively few animal bones were recovered, but evidence for cereal processing was identified (Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al 2017). Additionally, the integration of isotopic data into previous analyses of zooarchaeological remains at the urbanized locale of Kent indicates that foddering was a component of the pastoral strategy, while at the Turgen encampment multiple livestock management strategies were used (Ventresca Miller et al 2020a). Taken together, all of these findings indicate the need for more lab-based zooarchaeological analyses to better understand the integration of pastoral and agricultural practices.…”

Specialized wool production economy of prehistoric farmstead of Chap I in the highlands of Central Tian Shan (Kyrgyzstan)

“…Over 50% of caprines at Turgen were killed between 18 and 28 months of age and <15% survived after 3 years of age (Haruda, 2018), which points to the exploitation of animals for meat. A recently published research on sheep seasonal movements at Turgen (Ventresca Miller, Haruda, Varfolomeev, Goryachev, & Makarewicz, 2020) includes data for older animals (3+ years old), which were likely exploited for secondary products.…”

Pastoralism at Scale on the Kazakh Rangelands: From Clans to Workers to Ranchers

“…Recent interdisciplinary research by archaeologists, climate scientists and ecologists is uncovering more about the complex relationships between nomadic migrations, settled farming, climate change, and environmental conditions in the last millennia-"as scholarship focuses on the ways in which pastoralists, of various degrees of mobility, exploited geographically variable, and annually shifting climatic conditions to find pasture for their herds" (Brooke and Misa, 2020, p. 3). Since pre-historic times, nomadic pastoralist groups have tracked climatic changes and vegetation heterogeneity across ecozones, seasonally moving their livestock long distances latitudinally, shorter distances altitudinally (Khazanov, 1984;Gilmanov, 1996;Frachetti et al, 2012Frachetti et al, , 2017, or made relatively short-distance moves combined with significant use of foddering (Ventresca Miller et al, 2020a). Archaeological research in Kazakhstan suggests that in the prehistoric past, "pastoralist mobility was likely similar to what we see in the ethnographic record: seasonal mobility patterns of variable distance that brought populations between known ecological zones as they seasonally came into various stages of productivity" (Frachetti, 2015, p. 9).…”