Constraint, complexity and consumption: Zooarchaeological meta-analysis shows regional patterns of resilience across the metal ages in the Near East

Collapse and continuity: A multi-proxy reconstruction of settlement organization and population trajectories in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the 4.2kya Rapid Climate Change event

“…This value was chosen as it corresponds to the upper boundary of the so-called zone of uncertainty. In this zone, rainfed cereal agriculture is possible but relatively risky due to interannual rainfall fluctuations [ 37 ], and animal exploitation is focused on arid adapted species such as sheep and goat rather than cattle and pigs [ 68 ]. In the absence of adaptive strategies, we would expect aridification events to have more of an impact on communities living in this zone than in areas with higher rainfall.…”

“…It should be noted that our isohyets are derived from modern data, and that the 300 mm isohyet line represents a long-term average rather than a fixed boundary. Examining datasets from either side of the boundary has proved useful in interpreting archaeological data of various kinds, including stable carbon isotopes [ 69 ], zooarchaeological finds [ 68 ] and site morphology [ 70 ]. We use it here as a useful heuristic for interpreting our datasets and would encourage future research to model our data using other thresholds.…”

Much ado about nothing: assessing the impact of the 4.2 kya event on human subsistence patterns in northern Mesopotamia using stable isotope analysis

“…In these latter areas, some moderate increase in ovicaprids at the expense of suids-suggesting drier conditions-has been observed. Most sites, however, show a clear continuity in animal husbandry patterns (Gaastra et al 2019), as illustrated by the assemblages at Tell Arbid, where a relatively high proportion of pig is documented throughout the third millennium BC (Piatkowska-Małecka & Smogorzewska 2010), that is, both before and during the 4.2 kya event. The interpretation of the evidence at Tell Brak is less clear.…”

Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization

“…Based on these studies it seems that some indigenous Late Chalcolithic communities in the upper Euphrates and Tigris basins may have focused on cattle and pig pastoralism, and that intensive sheep/goat pastoralism was introduced later with the Uruk Expansion [ 137 ]. However, a recent meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data in the region concludes that sheep and goat were the dominant taxa during both the fifth and fourth millennia, with herd composition tied to precipitation patterns [ 138 ]. On the basis of studies in northern Mesopotamia and analogy to later periods in the south, we assume that irrigated cereal, legume, and date-palm agriculture as well as sheep/goat, pig, and cattle pastoralism were practiced in various environmental zones in the south and that rainfed cereal and legume agriculture as well as sheep/goat, pig, and cattle pastoralism were practiced in the north.…”