Urine salts elucidate Early Neolithic animal management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey

Abstract

The process of sheep and goat (caprine) domestication began by 9000 to 8000 BCE in Southwest Asia. The early Neolithic site at Aşıklı Höyük in central Turkey preserves early archaeological evidence of this transformation, such as culling by age and sex and use of enclosures inside the settlement. People’s strategies for managing caprines evolved at this site over a period of 1000 years, but changes in the scale of the practices are difficult to measure. Dung and midden layers at Aşıklı Höyük are highly enriched in soluble sodium, chlorine, nitrate, and nitrate-nitrogen isotope values, a pattern we attribute largely to urination by humans and animals onto the site. Here, we present an innovative mass balance approach to interpreting these unusual geochemical patterns that allows us to quantify the increase in caprine management over a ~1000-year period, an approach that should be applicable to other arid land tells.

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

“…It is also notable that the specific mitochondrial haplotype that becomes common in what are probably the earliest domesticated caprines in the Konya basin is already present in central Anatolia in the Epipalaeolithic, c.6000 years before any morphological or isotope evidence of domestication 29,30 . A central Anatolian domestication scenario would be consistent with archaeological evidence such as early 8th millennium corralling activities documented at the central Anatolian Asikli Höyük 7 , and the mid 8th millennium BCE dramatic shift in sheep and goat diets in the central Anatolian Konya plain 30 .…”

“…Sheep was one of the four main animal species managed and domesticated in this process. Archaeological evidence indicates that sedentary human communities were practicing sheep management already by 9,000-8,000 BCE in an area ranging from central Turkey to northwest Iran 3,4 ; this is evidenced, for instance, by signs of corralling in the central Anatolian site Asikli Höyük 5–7 and young male kill-off practices identified in southeast Anatolian Çayönü and Nevali Çori 8,9 (Fig. 1).…”

Livestock faecal indicators for animal management, penning, foddering and dung use in early agricultural built environments in the Konya Plain, Central Anatolia

“…By contrast, wild caprines are present in high numbers at ninth millennium Pınarbaşı. There is evidence for a more substantial mixed-farming economy at the contemporary central Anatolian site of Aşıklı Hüyük, in Cappadocia, with a range of crops and the occurrence of caprine management by 8200 cal BC (van der Zeist and Roller 1995, 2003; Özbaşaran Stiner et al 2014;Abell et al 2019). Large-scale mixed farming including both the cultivation and management of fully domestic cereals, legumes, and caprines are attested by at least 7100 cal BC on the Konya Plain at Çatalhöyük, followed by the adoption of domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) and use of secondary animal products such as milk in the Late Neolithic (Russell et al 2005(Russell et al , 2013Evershed et al 2008).…”

Dung in the dumps: what we can learn from multi-proxy studies of archaeological dung pellets

“…presence of bone or decayed organic matter) (Evershed et al 1997;Shahack-Gross 2011). Additional proxies for detecting dung include urine salts (Abell et al 2019), dung-related fauna and intestinal parasites (Schelvis 1992;Buckland and Buckland 2019;Camacho et al 2020), coprophilous fungi (Perrotti and van Asperen 2019), lipid biomarkers (Evershed et al 1997;Bull et al 1999Bull et al , 2002Shillito et al 2011) and the combination of phytolith and chemical signatures (Lancelotti and Madella 2012). Phytolith concentrations and/or morphologies have also been used to identify dung remains, although this has methodological issues (Shahack-Gross et al 2005).…”