The natural history of the fallow deer, Dama dama (Linnaeus, 1758) in Bulgaria in prehistory and new evidence for the existence of an autochthonous Holocene population in the Balkans

Abstract

The fallow deer (Dama dama Linnaeus, 1758) has a long history of interaction with prehistoric humans. Beginning in the Neolithic, humans introduced fallow deer to several areas of the eastern Mediterranean and mainland Europe, with later additional importing happening in the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, in some parts of southeastern Europe, autochthonous populations of extant fallow deer may have survived through the end of the Pleistocene and into the early Holocene, making them available for exploitation by Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities. Climatic and vegetational regimes favourable to fallow deer covered nearly all of Bulgaria during this period; yet, the heavy use of the species by human communities was restricted to a very small area around southeastern Bulgaria. Eventually, climate deterioration, habitat change and overhunting led to the decline of fallow deer in later prehistory in Bulgaria. This paper offers a discussion of the environmental and cultural background of human-fallow deer interactions from the sixth to fourth millennium BCE in Bulgaria. Using bivariate scatterplots and log ratio techniques, we demonstrate that Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities exploited a large extant fallow-deer population, appearing to target both males and females equally. Our results are the first step in a larger archaeological investigation of human-fallow deer relations that unfolded over several millennia, touching upon issues of settlement, migration and perhaps even taming or domestication.

The 10,000-year biocultural history of fallow deer and its implications for conservation policy

“…When combined with the zooarchaeological data ( Fig. 2 A ), this result supports the suggestion of a second glacial refugium in the southern and central Balkans ( 25 , 41 ). Large quantities of fallow deer remains have been recovered from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Bulgaria which demonstrate their early presence in this region.…”

“…Intriguingly, their remains exhibit morphologies distinct from the Anatolian fallow deer ( SI Appendix , Figs. S3 and S4 ) which may be the result of underlying genetic, not environmental differences ( 25 , 41 , 42 ). Despite the phenotypic distinction, stable and radiogenic isotope data show no difference in fallow deer diets between these regions ( SI Appendix , Fig.…”

“…By contrast, there is no consensus regarding the European fallow deer’s glacial refugia or natural post-glacial distribution. While some have suggested a single refugium in Anatolia ( 2 ), others have claimed multiple refugia across Anatolia, the southern Balkans, Italy, Sicily, and Iberia ( 4 , 24 , 25 ). The timing and circumstances of the fallow deer’s anthropogenic translocations are equally obscure, although numerous human cultures have been held responsible including early Neolithic farmers, Phoenicians, Romans, Normans, and early modern imperialists ( 26 ).…”

The cumulative niche approach: A framework to assess the performance of ecological niche model projections

“…Moreover, the original range of this deer species is poorly known due to the long human induced modifications in its native habitat (Karastoyanova et al, 2020). Finding an asymptote for these two species using occurrences from the native and alien ranges indicates the possibility of producing robust risk assessments and guide efforts to prevent further spread, such as the recent prediction of the European fallow deer range expansion in Tasmania (Cunningham et al, 2022).…”

Conservation genetics of the European fallow deer: a reply to Marchesini et al.

“…The idea of refugial fallow deer populations is not new, and has been previously promoted by some of the authors of Marchesini et al (2020). For example, fallow deer are proposed to have taken refuge in 2 main locations in south-eastern Europe: Turkey and the Balkans (Masseti and Vernesi 2015;Karastoyanova et al 2020). This is consistent with the phylogeographic patterns of other species native to this region where the Bosphorus strait acts as a biogeographic barrier between these 2 areas (see Bilgin 2011 and references therein).…”