Investigating cattle husbandry in the Swiss Late Neolithic using different scales of temporal precision: potential early evidence for deliberate livestock “improvement” in Europe

TY - JOUR

T1 - Investigating cattle husbandry in the Swiss Late Neolithic using different scales of temporal precision

T2 - potential early evidence for deliberate livestock “improvement” in Europe

AU - Wright, Elizabeth

N1 - Funding Information: Special thanks go to Jörg Schibler for his invaluable advice and our many interesting chats on Swiss Neolithic cattle, and to the rest of the zooarchaeology team at IPAS for providing data and answering my many questions. Thanks also to Ferran Antolin and Georgina Prats for their help with the site coordinates, and to Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas and Angela Trentacoste for their help with R. Thank you to the zooarchaeology team at the University of Sheffield for a very useful discussion around body size changes and statistics, and to Eda Gross for a useful discussion on Swiss Neolithic cultures. Finally, thanks to Ulrich Eberli at the Museum für Urgeschichte in Zug and Christian Harb, Stephanie Chamberlain and staff at the Kantonsarchäologie Zurich for providing access to the material from Zug Sennweid and Zurich Versicherung. This research was funded through a European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellowship (Grant no. 792076). Funding Information: Special thanks go to J?rg Schibler for his invaluable advice and our many interesting chats on Swiss Neolithic cattle, and to the rest of the zooarchaeology team at IPAS for providing data and answering my many questions. Thanks also to Ferran Antolin and Georgina Prats for their help with the site coordinates, and to Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas and Angela Trentacoste for their help with R. Thank you to the zooarchaeology team at the University of Sheffield for a very useful discussion around body size changes and statistics, and to Eda Gross for a useful discussion on Swiss Neolithic cultures. Finally, thanks to Ulrich Eberli at the Museum f?r Urgeschichte in Zug and Christian Harb, Stephanie Chamberlain and staff at the Kantonsarch?ologie Zurich for providing access to the material from Zug Sennweid and Zurich Versicherung. This research was funded through a European Commission Marie Sk?odowska-Curie European Fellowship (Grant no. 792076). Funding Information: Open Access funding provided by University of Basel. This research was funded through a European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellowship (Proposal 792076-LAKEBOS). Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).

PY - 2021/1/30

Y1 - 2021/1/30

N2 - Cattle were the most common domestic livestock animal throughout much of the Neolithic period in the area now occupied by modern day Switzerland, home to a significant number of sites dating to between approximately 4400 and 2500 cal BC. Many of these sites were located in wetland locations, resulting in very well-preserved large faunal assemblages which can be dated using dendrochronology with rare precision. This region is also particularly important for our knowledge of the spread of culture and innovation through Central Europe during the Neolithic period—its topography results in a natural corridor through which influences travelled from both the east and west. This study is the first to combine cattle data from across the whole of Switzerland, focusing on %NISP and biometrical data, in order to investigate how cattle husbandry changed over time, comparing the east and west of the region. A number of different temporal scales are used in order to look for broad patterns and then focus in for more detail. Results indicate that there is a clear correlation between %NISP and body size of cattle throughout much of the Swiss Neolithic and that cattle husbandry changed broadly in line with perceived cultural changes in both the east and west. Of particular interest is a clear increase in both %NISP and body size around the time of the introduction of the Corded Ware culture, contrary to the general pattern of cattle body size decrease seen across Europe at this time. This change is seen, however, in the west of Switzerland prior to the east and raises questions around alternative origins and areas of influence. Either way, the most likely explanation for the increase in cattle size is the introduction of a new population (or populations) of larger cattle into the region, which are incorporated into herds over a few hundred years, providing perhaps some of the earliest evidence for cattle “improvement” in Europe.

AB - Cattle were the most common domestic livestock animal throughout much of the Neolithic period in the area now occupied by modern day Switzerland, home to a significant number of sites dating to between approximately 4400 and 2500 cal BC. Many of these sites were located in wetland locations, resulting in very well-preserved large faunal assemblages which can be dated using dendrochronology with rare precision. This region is also particularly important for our knowledge of the spread of culture and innovation through Central Europe during the Neolithic period—its topography results in a natural corridor through which influences travelled from both the east and west. This study is the first to combine cattle data from across the whole of Switzerland, focusing on %NISP and biometrical data, in order to investigate how cattle husbandry changed over time, comparing the east and west of the region. A number of different temporal scales are used in order to look for broad patterns and then focus in for more detail. Results indicate that there is a clear correlation between %NISP and body size of cattle throughout much of the Swiss Neolithic and that cattle husbandry changed broadly in line with perceived cultural changes in both the east and west. Of particular interest is a clear increase in both %NISP and body size around the time of the introduction of the Corded Ware culture, contrary to the general pattern of cattle body size decrease seen across Europe at this time. This change is seen, however, in the west of Switzerland prior to the east and raises questions around alternative origins and areas of influence. Either way, the most likely explanation for the increase in cattle size is the introduction of a new population (or populations) of larger cattle into the region, which are incorporated into herds over a few hundred years, providing perhaps some of the earliest evidence for cattle “improvement” in Europe.

KW - %NISP

KW - Body size

KW - Cattle

KW - Husbandry

KW - Late Neolithic

KW - Switzerland

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100295007&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s12520-020-01252-6

DO - 10.1007/s12520-020-01252-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85100295007

SN - 1866-9557

VL - 13

JO - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

JF - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

IS - 2

M1 - 36

ER -