From herds to empire: Biomolecular and zooarchaeological investigations of mobile pastoralism in the ancient Eurasian steppe.
This multi-disciplinary project explores the emergence of mobile pastoralism in the Eurasian steppe where a unique transformation in human lifeways was initiated five thousand years ago, when people began to rely on sheep, goat, cattle, and horses for both their daily subsistence as symbols. The emergence of mobile pastoralism dramatically altered human diets, changed the ways people moved across landscapes, and generated altogether new forms of socio-political organization exceptional to the steppe that, ultimately, laid the foundations for pastoral nomadic states and empires.
Led by Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz at Kiel University and funded by the European Research Council, ASIAPAST investigates multi-trajectory pathways to pastoralism in Central Asia and Inner Asia, focusing on the connected regions of Kazakhstan, southern Russia, Mongolia, and Uzbekistan, and explores how regional differences in environment, subsistence strategies, and cultural traditions contributed to the initial spread of pastoralism and its subsequent intensification during the Bronze Age and its further consolidation as a means to political power during the Iron Age.
“We use a biomolecular approach that recovers the dietary and mobility histories of pastoralists and their animals recorded in bones, teeth, and pottery, and then pair the results generated by stable isotopic, genomic, and proteomic analyses with information gleaned from the zooarchaeological record detailing the economic and symbolic use of herd animals. Our approach gives us a unique opportunity to not only trace the spread of sheep, goat, and cattle across the steppe, but also uncover how livestock husbandry strategies co-evolved alongside pastoralist dietary intake and ritual use of herd animals. By drawing together the archaeological record and an array of archaeological scientific approaches, ASIAPAST will help unearth the dynamic mechanisms that cemented pastoralism as a lifeway in the challenging environments of the steppe.”
Cheryl Makarewicz, ASIAPAST PI.
RESEARCH THEMES
1 - Hunter-gatherer and pastoralist mobility patterns
This theme explores the relationships between mobility, local resource availability, and the pace of transfer and intensification of pastoralist economies. It examines in particular hunter-gatherer interaction with steppe landscapes prior to the advent of pastoralism, the scales of mobility involved with the uptake and intensification of mobile pastoralism, and how changes in mobility articulated changes in animal management practices across the steppe zone.
2 - The origins and evolution of steppe husbandry systems
There are numerous possible origins and dispersal routes for sheep, goats, and cattle into the steppe iand may have included Europe via the western steppe, Anatolia via the Caucasus region, the Iranian Plateau through the Central Asian oases, and possibly also from China into Xinjiang. This aspect of ASIAPAST investigates documents trans-regional dispersal vectors through whole genome analyses of ancient sheep and goats in order to establish initial transmission pathways as well as subsequent replacement waves. We also use zooarchaeological data in order to document shifts in the intensity of livestock exploitation and animal production for meat, milk, fats, and fibers, and examine how animal husbandry systems were adjusted to other subsistence strategies used by pastoralists involving farming, fishing, and hunting.
3 - Pastoralist diets in steppe environments
Steppe pastoralist diets are thought to have been based primarily on meat and milk obtained from their livestock but domesticated crops such as millet, wheat, and barley also provided additional sources of nutrition to ancient herders in some regions. Surprisingly, fish also appears to have been an important food source for pastoralists, particularly in the forested steppes of Russia. Here, we use an array of biomolecular approaches to examine how variation in herd animal exploitation and management strategies articulated with shifts in the relative importance of meat, fat, and milk in pastoralist diets, including stable isotope and proteomic analyses of human bones, teeth, and dental calculus.We trace the evolution of ancient pastoralist dietary intake across the steppe using a variety of biomolecular approaches. In particular, we employ bulk nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ15N) isotope analyses of human proteinaceous tissues accompanied by compound-specific C and N isotope analyses of bone collagen in order detect dietary shifts. We also are tracing the contribution of dairy to ancient pastoralist diets through proteomic analyses of human dental calculus, which preserves milk proteins including alpha caesin and beta-lactoglobulin, and also via analyses of organic residues remaining in ancient cooking pots which also preserve other kinds of fats from both terrestrial and aquatic food sources.
4 - Transformation of livestock from subsistence to symbol
Domesticated herd animals played central roles in regional ceremonies and mortuary activities conducted at stone monument sites characteristic for steppe pastoralist communities and were a vital means to ideological and political expression. ASIAPAST also examines if livestock, initially a subsistence resource, evolved into a symbolic medium under circumstances of increased socio-political cooperation and competition between pastoralist groups. As part of this, we explore regional variation in the ritual use and treatment of sacrificed herd animals, and also examine if herd animals sacrificed as part of the ceremonial activities that took place at monuments such as khirigsuurs and kurgans helped facilitate social integration of mobile pastoralists.This theme draws in particular from the rich zooarchaeological record recovered from mortuary monuments, with particular attention to the wild and domesticated species slaughtered and body parts chosen for interment with the human dead and proximal monument features. We further tie these faunal data with corresponding archaeological information on monument construction, distribution, and associated material culture.