The utility of livestock dung for reconstructing recent ethnological and environmental histories

Abstract

Animal dung is evaluated here as a tool to reconstruct recent societal and environmental changes. Studies completed on the macro-and micro-contents from dung deposited in a mountain cave in Catalonia during the 1970-1980s, preceding the socio-economic changes in the area, was supplemented by the testimony of the last shepherd alive in the area. This information was also compared with evidence from aerial photographs of the area surrounding the cave taken in 1956 and 2009. Although taphonomic distortion of the dung shape precluded its assignment to its producers based on morphology, information from the organic remains reflects the agro-pastoral activities in the mountainous area of the Catalan coast. A lack of calcium phosphate and abundant phytolith and epidermal remains from wild species indicates that the dung was excreted by ovicaprines, who sheltered in the cave during spells of adverse weather. These indicators also signify that the animals fed only on natural vegetation. Insect remains in the dung include fragments of chafers, dung and ground beetles, bees and ants, and whilst the latter may have foraged in the cave, the others may have been accidentally ingested by herbivores. The nannofossils and diatoms found in the dung derive from tertiary crops 4 km away from the cave but within the range of the ovicaprine herd. The lack of cereal and vegetable remains in the dung is consistent with the ethnographic record that shepherds and farmers could not afford to supplement the herds' diet with fodder crops or grain, a consequence of the low productivity of the local subsistence agriculture. This study further discusses the socio-economic impacts of the introduction of intensive farming, industrialisation and tourism in Catalonia during the latter part of the last century and how they are represented in the dung.

The burning issue of dung in archaeobotanical samples: a case-study integrating macro-botanical remains, dung spherulites, and phytoliths to assess sample origin and fuel use at Tell Zeidan, Syria

“…When remnants of burned dung are present in flotation samples, the plant remains provide insights into pasturing, foddering and seasonal animal management practices from early agricultural to fully-fledged state level societies, together with the socioeconomic choices underpinning fuel selection, use and landscape use, and also contribute to our understanding of the Secondary Products Revolution and the earliest use of dung fuel (e.g. Miller 1990Miller , 1997aSchepers and van Haaster 2015;Valamoti 2007;Panadès i Blas et al 2017;Deckers 2011;Elliott et al 2015). In contrast, when plants represent the remains of food preparation, storage, or crop processing, questions centre on the agronomic choices farmers made to grow crops, or the social organization of crop processing and food preparation (e.g.…”

“…Since each approach has relative strengths and weaknesses in isolation, multi-proxy approaches are often adopted. Once identified, the presence of animal dung has been used to document a range of behaviours, including the following: animal penning; pasturing, foddering and seasonal herd management strategies; mundane and ritual selection of construction materials for floors, ovens, and walls; fuel use; and application of organic fertilizer (when applied fresh or dried) or inorganic fertilizer (when applied in ash form after burning) within gardens or agricultural fields (Berna 2017;Gur-Arieh et al 2013;Portillo et al 2014Portillo et al , 2017Albert et al 2008;Miller and Gleason 1994;Schepers and van Haaster 2015;Valamoti 2007;Panadès i Blas et al 2017;Deckers 2011;Elliott et al 2015;Miller 1990;Matthews 2010). Within macro-botanical studies, the presence of inferred dung remains has most generally been used to discuss fuel selection and landscape use, although the potential to discuss penned areas and dung within building materials remains.…”