New trajectories or accelerating change? Zooarchaeological evidence for Roman transformation of animal husbandry in Northern Italy
| Autor: | Angela Trentacoste, Barbara Wilkens, Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas, Gabriella Petrucci, Ariadna Nieto-Espinet, Silvia Guimaraes |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Archeology Biometry Iron Age media_common.quotation_subject 01 natural sciences Late Antiquity State (polity) Bronze Age Improvement 0601 history and archaeology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common 2. Zero hunger Original Paper 060102 archaeology business.industry Agriculture 06 humanities and the arts Economy 15. Life on land Animal husbandry Roman Empire Geography Anthropology Ethnology Livestock business Chronology |
| Zdroj: | Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| Popis: | Throughout the Western provinces of the Roman Empire, greater economic and political connectivity had a major impact on agricultural production, which grew in scale and specialisation after integration with the Roman state. However, uniquely in Western Europe, farming strategies in Italy began to evolve centuries before the Roman conquest, and many ‘Roman’ patterns associated with livestock size and the relative proportions of different taxa first emerged during the early and middle centuries of the first millennium BC. These changes imply a significant reorganisation of production strategies well before Roman hegemony, even in relatively marginal areas of Italy. Zooarchaeological studies have documented further significant changes to livestock production in Roman times, but the relationship between these developments and earlier trends remains unclear. Through analysis of zooarchaeological data for species representation and livestock biometry from lowland northern Italy (Po–Friulian Plain), this study investigates animal exploitation between the Bronze Age and Late Antiquity in order to characterise the influence of Roman political and economic organisation on animal husbandry. Results demonstrated subregional variation in species representation, and different trajectories in the biometric evolution of cattle, sheep and goats, compared to pigs. Initial steps established in the Iron Age towards a more complex and dynamic livestock economy were accelerated and further reconfigured in Roman times, facilitated by Roman economic organisation and the specialised and large-scale production systems within it. Zooarchaeological trends continued to progress over the Roman period, until further changes at the very end of the chronology considered here -around the sixth century AD- suggest another wave of change. This work was financially supported by the ERC-Starting Grant ZooMWest – Zooarchaeology and Mobility in the Western Mediterranean: Hudry production from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Antiquity (award number 716298), funded by the European Research Council Agency (ERCEA) under the direction of SVL. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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