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Animal Husbandry and the Use of Space in the Greek Sector of the Late Neolithic Settlement of Promachon-Topolnica
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the animal bone assemblage from the Greek sector of the Late Neolithic flatextended settlement of Promachon-Topolnica in Macedonia, northern Greece. The faunal evidence indicates a small-scale economy, with a highly mixed composition of livestock, particularly tuned to the production of meat. However, other secondary products, such as milk, also might have been used, although they might have been less important. Although caprines form the most frequent species throughout the course of the Late Neolithic, cattle was probably the most prized animal. Among the principal domesticates, cattle would have provided the largest quantities of meat; hence it would have been far more important than caprines (and pigs). The substantial number of bucrania recovered from a large circular timber-framed subterranean structure (Structure 4) attest to the species' symbolic significance as well. The faunal evidence is largely consistent with the excavators' argument regarding the "public" function of this particular structure, which was probably "reserved" exclusively for large-scale feasting. This contradicts the information from the rest of the deposits, for which a more likely household origin is suggested. © 2017 by International Monographs in Prehistory All rights reserved.
... This concentration of food-related equipment raises questions about the social status of Building C in comparison with other buildings in the settlement. Complementing other studies on Neolithic feasts in Greece, which have mainly examined ceramic tableware and bioarchaeological food remains (Kazantzis, 2017;Pappa et al., 2004;Trantalidou, 2010;Urem-Kotsou and Kotsakis, 2007), this study places a focal emphasis on cooking facilities. The analysis of the forms, functions and spatial configuration of cooking-related features demonstrates how central food preparation and cooking activities were during these gathering events. ...
... It is suggested that this large (15 m in radius and 7 m in depth) subterranean structure with a roofed construction was a communal gathering area and a reference point in the settlement, possibly reserved for large-scale feasts. As a whole, the faunal remains from the settlement differed considerably from the assemblage of animal bones found in Structure 4 during Phase I, where a significant amount of cattle remains were found (Kazantzis, 2017(Kazantzis, , 2018Theodoroyianni and Trantalidou, 2013;Trantalidou, 2010). Archaeological evidence shows that cattle constituted the backbone of these commensal gatherings (Theodoroyianni and Trantalidou, 2013: 424). ...
... We can only assume that the inhabitants of Building C shared the same status as the building itself. The periodicity and causes of these medium-scale feasts are unknown and could vary based on historical times and circumstances in the life of the community (Carsten, 1995;Dietler, 2012;Donley, 1982;Isaakidou and Halstead, 2018;Janowski, 1995;Kazantzis, 2017;Lévi-Strauss, 1969;Twiss, 2007). The lasting maintenance of Building C as a special gathering place shows that commensal gatherings were integral to the social structure and probably represented a social way to come together, maintain social relations and enhance solidarity within the community. ...
This paper describes the cooking installations found inside a specific building, Building C, in the Late Neolithic site of Kleitos 1, their morphological and functional diversification, how they changed and evolved throughout time, and their spatial arrangements. Building C provided the stratigraphic information required by the authors to discern two distinct chronological phases, during which a significant change took place in the characteristics and organisation of the cooking facilities in the building. Building C underwent a transformation from a household unit during phase A to a medium-scale gathering place, capable of hosting a certain number of people, in Phase B. The identification of Building C as a medium-scale gathering place is based on the quantity and quality of its cooking facilities in comparison both to findings in other buildings on the site and to two well-explored Neolithic contexts of large-scale gatherings in Northern Greece, Makriyialos and Promachon-Topolniča. This is the first time a medium-scale gathering place has been recorded in Neolithic Greece. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of multi-scalar gatherings and the broader variability witnessed in social dynamics and site organisation in the Late Neolithic period of Northern Greece (late 6th to early 5th millennium cal BC).
For obvious reasons of location, Greece has long
been regarded as the conduit through which farming,
and perhaps farmers, spread from southwest
Asia into Europe; and in the 1950s and 1960s, sites
such as Argissa and Knossos (figure 7.1) were central
to zooarchaeological studies of the beginnings
of stock-keeping (Boessneck 1962; Higgs and Jarman
1969). Consistent with the focus of this volume
on the origins and spread of stock-keeping, this
chapter briefly reviews the sparse evidence for the
transition from hunting to herding in Greece before
examining, in turn, the husbandry of livestock, the
consumption of domestic deadstock, and hunting in
the earlier Neolithic, spanning roughly the early seventh
to the mid-sixth millennium BC (table 7.1).
Cattle metapodials are apparently among the bones which have been most investigated by zooarchaeologists. Nevertheless the effect of different variables on size and shape of these bones is still only poorly understood. Here the effect of age, sex, pathology and genetic change on the shape of mediaeval and postmediaeval cattle metapodials at Launceston Castle (England) is considered. It is suggested that a change is due to the presence in the later period of a genetically different type of cattle. This explanation is supported by the contemporary occurrence of a size change and by the different frequency of a non-metrical trait between the two periods. Comparison with other sites and with data from modern animals shows the very large extent to which the shape of metapodials may vary in different regional types, and how this can obscure the difference between sexes.
At a LN settlement 17 modified cattle skulls have been identified in a special function semi-subterranean structure.
Πενήντα επτά κέρατα (μεμονωμένα ή διπλά, με ή χωρίς το μετωπιαίο οστούν) μαζί με αγγεία, ειδώλια, μυλόπετρες και οστά ανακαλύφθηκαν στον υπόσκαφο χώρο του νεολιθικού οικισμού, που χρονολογήθηκε από το τέλος της 6ης χιλιετίας έως τις αρχές της 5ης.
Δεκαεπτά από τα παραπάνω είναι μορφοποιημένα βούκρανα. Διασώζεται ο ένας ή οι δύο γόμφοι, το μετωπιαίο, το βρεγματικό αλλά δεν διατηρείται η κρανιακή κάψα και το υπόλοιπο κρανίο. Αποτέλεσμα ήταν μία σχεδόν επίπεδη επιφάνεια (παρουσιάζονται τα βήματα μορφοποίησης των αντικειμένων) η οποία θα μπορούσε να προσαρμοστεί σε οιανδήποτε επιφάνεια (και ως διακοσμητικό/συμβολικό στοιχείο) και από την οποία ξεχώριζαν τα κέρατα (πρβ. πήλινα ομοιώματα κτηρίων φέροντα βούκρανα). Με βάση τα βιομετρικά δεδομένα τα κρανία προσδιορίστηκαν ως προς το είδος και φύλο και αναζητήθηκαν πολιτισμικά παράλληλα στην Ανατολία και τη υπόλοιπη Βαλκανική χερσόνησο.
New methods permit archaeologists to distinguish between wild boar and domestic pigs with greater confidence than has been hitherto possible. Metrical methods are the most commonly used; these are reviewed. Assemblages containing a wider range of measurements (as measured by the coefficient of variation [V]) than is found in one population suggest that two populations of different-sized pigs were present, probably indicating separate wild and domestic populations with little or no interbreeding. These assemblages, sometimes taken to indicate animals ‘intermediate’ between wild and domestic, are clear evidence of full domestication. Other traditional means of diagnosing domestication based on age at death (the killing of many young animals) and biogeography (the export of the animal beyond its natural range, especially to islands) are particularly problematic when applied to pigs. New methods include the frequency of Linear Enamel Hypoplasia, which may increase due to domestication-induced stress, the study of diet through isotopes and dental microwear, and the examination of population histories through ancient and modern DNA and geometric morphometrics. These are all promising but should not be considered in isolation: many problems remain.
