Regional pastoral practice in central and southeastern Kazakhstan in the Final Bronze Age (1300–900 BCE)

Haruda, Ashleigh

doi:10.1016/j.ara.2017.09.004

Cited by 26 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Early Bronze Age occupations at Chegirtke Cave also exploited a wild species of lagomorph (probably the Tolai hare, a wild hare native to the region). This pattern is consistent with other early Bronze Age sites in Central Asia, which show a decreasing proportion of wild fauna over the course of the Bronze Age [ 42 ]. The large granitic grinding stone ( Fig 9 ) found within Structure 1 near the entrance to Chegirtke Cave, if temporally associated, suggests that these people practiced a mixed agricultural and pastoral strategy.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Early pastoral economies along the Ancient Silk Road: Biomolecular evidence from the Alay Valley, Kyrgyzstan

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Silk Road was an important trade route that channeled trade goods, people, plants, animals, and ideas across the continental interior of Eurasia, fueling biotic exchange and key social developments across the Old World. Nestled between the Pamir and Alay ranges at a baseline elevation of nearly 3000m, Kyrgyzstan’s high Alay Valley forms a wide geographic corridor that comprised one of the primary channels of the ancient Silk Road. Recent archaeological survey reveals a millennia-long history of pastoral occupation of Alay from the early Bronze Age through the Medieval period, and a stratified Holocene sequence at the site of Chegirtke Cave. Faunal remains were recovered from test excavations as well as surface collection of material from recent marmot activity. Although recovered specimens were highly fragmented and mostly unidentifiable using traditional zooarchaeological methods, species identification via collagen mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) coupled with sex and first-generation hybrid identification through ancient DNA enabled preliminary characterization of the animal economy of Alay herders. Our new results indicate primary reliance on sheep at Chegirtke Cave (ca. 2200 BCE), with cattle and goat also present. The discovery of a large grinding stone at a spatially associated Bronze or Iron Age habitation structure suggests a mixed agropastoral economic strategy, rather than a unique reliance on domestic animals. Radiocarbon-dated faunal assemblages from habitation structures at nearby localities in the Alay Valley demonstrate the presence of domestic horse, as well as Bactrian camel during later periods. The current study reveals that agropastoral occupation of the high-mountain Alay corridor started millennia before the formal establishment of the Silk Road, and posits that ZooMS, when paired with radiocarbon dates and ancient DNA, is a powerful and cost-effective tool for investigating shifts in the use of animal domesticates in early pastoral economies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Early pastoral economies along the Ancient Silk Road: Biomolecular evidence from the Alay Valley, Kyrgyzstan

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…higher frequencies of domesticated sheep versus goat MT-CYB sequences generally echo previously published zooarchaeological data for the sampled sites and other sites across the Eurasian steppe zone, showing a ratio of sheep to goat skeletal remains of approximately 10-15:1 [46,81,84,86,93,94]. Two specimens from Begash previously identified as Siberian ibex based on morphological criteria [86] were determined to be domesticated sheep, based on MT-CYB sequences that are specific to Ovis aries [47].…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 82%

High mitochondrial diversity of domesticated goats persisted among Bronze and Iron Age pastoralists in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor

Hermes

Frachetti

Voyakin³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In some cases, the ability to control more horses appears to have prompted an increased dietary reliance on horses as a source of meat -causing www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ an increase in the frequency of horses in many archaeofaunal assemblages. It must be noted that broad-scale environmental differences between regions 6 , as well as cultural and microenvironmental factors 7 , are important influences on the composition of Central Asian herds and archaeofaunal assemblages. Compellingly, however, the pattern of increased frequency of archaeological horse remains during the late second millennium BCE can still be observed within various regions -including in the Trans-Ural region, the Central Steppes of Kazakhstan, and the arid desert-steppes of southern Central Asia (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The great steppes of Eurasia are characterized not only by broad stretches of dry grasslands, but also a wide range of different environmental and ecological zones -including a diverse mix of deserts, mountain and alpine zones, forest, and productive agricultural valleys. Pastoral herding of domestic animals has been a historically significant lifeway across much of this region, but the species emphasized by particular herding groups within this ecogeographic zone -including sheep, goat, cattle, yak, camel, horse, and others -vary widely according to local environmental conditions 6 and/or cultural choices 7 . Eurasian domestic livestock species differ in terms of their food and water requirements.…”

Section: Pastoralism In the Eurasian Steppesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia

Taylor

Clark

Bayarsaikhan

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While classic models for the emergence of pastoral groups in Inner Asia describe mounted, horse-borne herders sweeping across the Eurasian Steppes during the Early or Middle Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1500 BCE), the actual economic basis of many early pastoral societies in the region is poorly characterized. In this paper, we use collagen mass fingerprinting and ancient DNA analysis of some of the first stratified and directly dated archaeofaunal assemblages from Mongolia's early pastoral cultures to undertake species identifications of this rare and highly fragmented material. Our results provide evidence for livestock-based, herding subsistence in Mongolia during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. We observe no evidence for dietary exploitation of horses prior to the late Bronze Age, ca. 1200 BCE-at which point horses come to dominate ritual assemblages, play a key role in pastoral diets, and greatly influence pastoral mobility. In combination with the broader archaeofaunal record of Inner Asia, our analysis supports models for widespread changes in herding ecology linked to the innovation of horseback riding in Central Asia in the final 2nd millennium BCE. Such a framework can explain key broad-scale patterns in the movement of people, ideas, and material culture in Eurasian prehistory. Horse domestication is widely recognized as a key transformative event in human prehistory. The initial domestication of horses has been linked to major changes in human mobility and social organization, particularly in Inner Asia 1. Horses have also been invoked to explain continent-scale population movements, such as the spread

show abstract

Regional pastoral practice in central and southeastern Kazakhstan in the Final Bronze Age (1300–900 BCE)

Cited by 26 publications

References 39 publications

Early pastoral economies along the Ancient Silk Road: Biomolecular evidence from the Alay Valley, Kyrgyzstan

Early pastoral economies along the Ancient Silk Road: Biomolecular evidence from the Alay Valley, Kyrgyzstan

High mitochondrial diversity of domesticated goats persisted among Bronze and Iron Age pastoralists in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor

Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About