Archaeozoology of the Bronze Age of the Southern Urals: Stability and Changes in Pastoralism
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: The article is devoted to a discussion of the main results of archaeozoological studies of materials from settlements of different periods of the Bronze Age in the Southern Urals (the Sintashta and Alakul cultures) and new methodological approaches to the study of animal bones from archaeological sites. The basis of the life support system of the inhabitants of the settlements throughout the Bronze Age was the breeding of livestock. The main parameters of animal husbandry were relatively stable and did not undergo evolution from the Sintashta to Alakul periods of the Bronze Age. Modern archaeozoological studies have made it possible to fix the specific manner of fragmentation of bones, the alleged working exploitation of cattle and stall keeping of livestock, as well as to reveal the evolution of these processes during the Bronze Age. Drawing upon the results of the study of modern animal husbandry made it possible to identify osteophagy of ungulates, to assess the possibility of a settled model of pastoralism and typical pathologies of livestock for materials from the Bronze Age. The article proposes the use of bones with traces of exposure by ungulates as a reliable marker of the location of livestock in the Bronze Age settlements. The most important changes in animal husbandry include a slight decrease in the size of cattle, a change in the system of bone fragmentation, as well as the alleged termination of the tradition of working use of bulls/oxen in the Alakul time. The analysis of indirect markers and the results of the study of modern animal husbandry allow the reconstruction of a sedentary type of cattle breeding in the Bronze Age of the Southern Urals, in which herds of domestic ungulates graze all year round near settlements.
Source: Ural Historical Journal
Author: Alexey Yu. Rassadnikov
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4381665890