Eco-Cultural Niche Breadth and Overlap Within the Cucuteni–Trypillia Culture Groups During the Eneolithic

Abstract

One of the most applied tools for documenting cultural variability and for tracing cultural trajectories within the environmental context is eco-cultural niche modeling and its associated methodology. The niche breadth characterization quantitatively evaluates the links between a given adaptive system and ecological constraints, which provides valuable information for archeology. For this purpose, in this study, 10 independent climatic and topographic environmental variables were interpolated, and eco-cultural niche modeling techniques were used to determine whether these differences in geographic distributions and niche breadth are consequences of differences in five Cucuteni–Trypillia groups that flourished in Eastern Europe during the Eneolithic (cal. 5,400/5,300–2,800/2,700 BCE). Our results showed that the eco-cultural niches of Cucuteni–Trypillia groups are significantly overlapping, and the expansion trend of the last two cultural groups (Late Eneolithic–cal. 4,100/4,000–2,800/2,700 BCE) into the northeastern steppe regions was not due to ecological niche differences but rather a result of other cultural factors. Furthermore, we highlighted that the first three Cucuteni–Trypillia groups (Early-to-Middle Eneolithic—cal. 5,400/5,300–4,100/4,000 BCE) had slightly more constrained ecological niches in the mid-Holocene ecosystems than the Late Eneolithic groups. The results have significant implications for understanding the geographical range dynamics and distribution of the last great Chalcolithic society of Old Europe and contribute to the characterization of ecological niches they have exploited during the cultural evolutionary process.

Inside Late Bronze Age Settlements in NE Romania: GIS-Based Surface Characterization of Ashmound Structures Using Airborne Laser Scanning and Aerial Photography Techniques

“…The workspace, namely the Jijia Hills region from NE Romania, was chosen to perform the current study due to its extensive habitation during prehistoric periods, including the Chalcolithic (Precucuteni/Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex) [29,30,44] and Bronze Age (BA) [7,34]. The high density of cultural heritage found throughout the entire territory of Jijia Hills serves as evidence of the essential physical-geographical characteristics that describe this region, making it suitable for the development of communities, both in historical as well as in present times.…”

Ecological niche measurement and high-quality development of "the Belt and Road" core area

“…The concept of the ecological niche comes from ecology, first defined by Joseph Grinell [33] in his study of organisms in nature, and since then foreign scientists have continued to add to its meaning [34,35]. After almost a century of evolution, the notion of the "ecological niche" now exceeds the scope of ecological studies and is being progressively extended to other domains including economic [36][37][38], tourism [39][40][41], cultural [42][43][44], technological [45,46], and industrial [47] niches. The application of ecological niche theory in the field of regional economics is relatively recent, but the model of analogy between regional units and species units has been widely used in the study of regional geography and regional economics [48][49][50][51][52][53].…”

Elemental composition of salt and vulnerability assessment of saline groundwater sources selected based on ethnoarchaeological evidence in Romania

“…Additionally, the Bronze Age salt production site at Băile Figa, located in the junction between the Inner Eastern Carpathians and Transylvanian Plateau, shows that the oldest salt production traces in Europe can be found in the Eastern Carpathians area (Quinn and Ciugudean, 2018). Therefore, with approximately 300 SGS sites and numerous prehistoric archaeological sites in their vicinity (Romanescu, 2019), and, most notably, with areas that still exhibit resilient traditional practices of salt provision in rural communities, the salt landscape of the Carpathian Basin (Romanescu et al, 2018) has played a important role in the genesis and evolution of preindustrial salt civilization (Gimbutas, 1974;Harding, 2014;Mihu-Pintilie and Gherghel, 2022).…”

“…The novelty of this study derives from the fact that the ECs results (Yang et al, 2018;Guo et al, 2019), in conjunction with ethnoarchaeological investigation, Geographic Information System (GIS) data integration (Warren and Asch, 1999;Mihu-Pintilie et al, 2016;Mihu-Pintilie and Nicu, 2019;Mihu-Pintilie and Gherghel, 2022), and DRASTIC and DRASTIC-LU vulnerability assessment of each selecde SGS were used to provide a complementary interdisciplinary approach for ethno-management purposes (Romanescu et al, 2018). Furthermore, this work has practical applications as all analyzed SGS are still being used by rural populations for various traditional practices (e.g., food preservation, milk curdling, and pickling), and the results provide valuable information regarding the consequences and benefits of consumption for human health.…”